San Andreas fault capable of magnitude 8.1 earthquake over 340-miles of California, researchers say

[Frank Booth]

Source: LA Times

New research showing a section of the fault is long overdue for a major earthquake has some scientists saying that the fault is now capable of a magnitude 8.1 earthquake that could run 340 miles from Monterey County to the Salton Sea.

Whether such a quake would happen in our lifetime had been a subject of hot debate among scientists. That's because experts had believed that a major section of the southern San Andreas, which runs through the Carrizo Plain 100 miles northwest of Los Angeles, would remain dormant for at least another century.

But that rosy hypothesis seemed to be shattered by a recent report in the journal Geology, which said that even that section of the San Andreas is far overdue for the "Big One." Now, according to U.S. Geological Survey seismologist Lucy Jones, it is entirely possible that all 340 miles of the southern San Andreas could be ready to erupt at any time. Such a scenario would trigger a magnitude 8.1 earthquake, said Thomas Jordan, director of the Southern California Earthquake Center, a calculation with which Jones agreed.

"All of it has plenty enough stress for it to be ready to go," Jones said. "The biggest implication of is that it increases the likelihood that when we do have a big earthquake, it will grow into the 'wall-to-wall' rupture."

Read more: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2010/10/san-andreas-capable-of-80-earthquake-over-340-mile-swath-of-california-researchers-say.html

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. Get ready, everybody...

It'll be a bumpy ride.

[davidhilton]

2. I grew up in Calif, and was in the '89 Bay area quake,

so, I've been hearing about the "Big One" for @ 40 years. I'm not holding my breath, or moving from Calif.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

3. I too grew up here...

I was living down here in SoCal when the quake in 70 or 71 hit...

I have zero plans to relocate.

[K8-EEE]

4. Ugh, I don't think we would survive an 8.1

So I guess I'm not gonna worry too much about it! The 5.4 was bad enough, 8.1 would be game over.

[sakabatou]

5. Now, how it damages will depend on where the epicenter is

[SleeplessinSoCal]

6. And whether your property is on sand or rock.

[TheMadMonk]

11. Um, read. They're talking about a 340 mile long epicentre. /nt

[jennied]

7. Yikes. My town is right on that fault line. Makes me wanna pack and move

[Uben]

8. Would you move if.....

.....you lived below a major dam that had huge cracks in it? That's about the same thing we have here. We know it's gonna come, we just don't know when, exactly. personally, I would never, ever, gamble on my families safety that way. I would move in a heartbeat. I realize Californians have lived with earthquake dangers since there has been a California, but just because the "big one" hasn't hit yet, doesn't make it any less inevitable.

So, when the big one hits in 2012, I'll be wishing you guys all the best.

[hunter]

9. Please don't let me be in a big box store.

I don't want to be crushed in a storm of falling consumer goods.

Don't let me be driving either.

I'd rather be walking the dogs in the open countryside.

[slackmaster]

10. That's been my assumption since I started practicing earthquake preparedness

Bring it on. Get it over with.