Puente Hills Fault

Newly developed computer models applied for the first time to the Puente Hills fault beneath downtown Los Angeles suggest a 7.5 magnitude quake could cause as much as a quarter of a trillion dollars in damage and kill as many as 18,000 people. Scientists have known for the last two years that the fault is the major quake threat to urban Los Angeles, but the new projections released Wednesday provide the first rough picture of the potential loss of life and property.

Previously secret oil company data reveal a major active fault system under metropolitan Los Angeles that most likely caused the magnitude 5.9 Whittier Narrows earthquake in 1987, researchers said Thursday. This buried fracture may be capable of larger and even more damaging earthquakes than the 1994 Northridge quake, according to the research, published today in Science.