San Andreas

Southern California is long overdue for a major earthquake along the San Andreas fault, according to a landmark study of historic seismic activity released Friday. The study, produced after several years of field studies in the Carrizo Plain area about 100 miles northwest of Los Angeles, found that earthquakes along the San Andreas fault have occurred far more often than previously believed. For years, scientists have said major earthquakes occurred every 250 to 450 years along this part of the San Andreas.

Thanks to a new method of modeling earthquakes, scientists may now understand why the Parkfield segment of the San Andreas fault - a carefully studied region known for producing moderate temblors every 20 years or so - has been behaving unexpectedly since around the time Ronald Reagan was in the White House. Taking data collected by sensors on the ground and in space and combining them with observations from laboratory physics experiments, Caltech researchers conducted a computer simulation of tectonic events at Parkfield and discovered that a series of small quakes there may have staved off a larger shaker that geologists predicted would occur in the late 1980s or early 1990s.

The "Big One" that has been forecast for the San Andreas fault could end up being bigger than earthquake experts previously thought. Recent research showing that a section of the fault is long overdue for a major earthquake has some scientists saying the southern portion of the fault is capable of a magnitude 8.1 earthquake that could run 340 miles from Monterey County to the Salton Sea. That's significantly stronger and longer than the...

Researchers believe Colorado River damming projects that followed the creation of the Salton Sea could be one reason why Southern California is overdue for a major earthquake. In a new study led by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, scientists found that the floodwaters that periodically flowed through faults helped trigger earthquakes in the area, including several large ones along the mighty San Andreas. The modern Salton Sea came to life nearly a century ago when record floodwaters from the Colorado River overwhelmed barriers, and during the course of two years created the massive body of water in a desert sink.

Researchers believe Colorado River damming projects that followed the creation of the Salton Sea could be one reason why Southern California is overdue for a major earthquake. In a new study led by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, scientists found that the floodwaters that periodically flowed through faults helped trigger earthquakes in the area, including several large ones along the mighty San Andreas. The modern Salton Sea came to life nearly a century ago when record floodwaters from the Colorado River overwhelmed barriers, and during the course of two years created the massive body of water in a desert sink.

Buried beneath the tracts of desert-colored homes with shingled roofs, wide streets and big yards, rests the mighty San Andreas fault, a geological menace responsible for two of the greatest earthquakes in California history. For Karmen Garcia and her two dogs, Dino and Sparky, this is home. "You can't see it here, but I know it's there," said Garcia, 45, as she walked her dogs along Bayberry Street. I think about it every day." Garcia laughed at the irony.

Earthquakes along the San Andreas fault over the last 1,000 years have all been above magnitude 6.5, with no signs of small temblors that might have relieved pent-up pressure, scientists reported in the current issue of the journal Geology. By matching up dry creek beds on either side of the fault 120 miles northwest of Los Angeles, the researchers estimated that 95% of the slippage in the last six earthquakes was caused by large but rare quakes with magnitudes of about 7.5 to 8.

Mention earthquakes and Orange County residents look to the notorious San Andreas Fault, 30 miles northeast of the Los Angeles metropolitan area. Yet experts say a greater danger lies underfoot the Newport-Inglewood Fault slicing north along the Orange County coast from Newport Beach. It has already provided the worst urban quake in Southern California history--the 1933 Long Beach Earthquake that killed 120 people and caused $40 million damage. Yet that 6.

A respected earthquake authority reported Wednesday that he successfully predicted four moderate earthquakes on the San Andreas fault in Central California between October and January, raising the possibility that researchers may have discovered a way to give advance notice of the devastating shudders in the Earth.

Scientists increased their watch along the San Andreas fault near Parkfield in Central California Monday after a 3.5 earthquake occurred in a particularly sensitive zone where a magnitude 6 quake has been predicted since 1985. Bill Ellsworth of the U.S. Geological Survey said the quake at 4:28 p.m. Sunday was centered on the San Andreas fault under Middle Mountain, seven miles northwest of Parkfield. The predicted strong temblor under the mountain is at least four years overdue.

A massive earthquake rippling down the lower half of the San Andreas fault could cripple Southern California's economy and deal a severe shock to millions of workers and hundreds of thousands of businesses, according to a report released Tuesday by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Modeling the effects of a 7.8-magnitude earthquake, the likes of which has not been felt in Southern California since the 1850s but which geologists say is overdue, the study divided the region into areas of vulnerability, highlighting zones expected to receive either "very strong" or "destructive" shaking.

Rocky and mostly barren, the San Jacinto and Santa Rosa mountains southwest of Palm Springs offer terrain hospitable only to king snakes, lizards and tortoises. Shade is almost nonexistent, and jagged rocks and barrel cactuses welcome visitors with stinging jabs to the feet and shins. Still, this is ideal habitat for bighorn sheep and mountain bikers. In the scrubland outside Palm Springs, the sheep are endangered but the bikers are flourishing. For mountain bikers, the more rugged and treacherous the terrain, the better.

Three days after the earthquake and tsunami devastated northeastern Japan, Gary Fuis walked across the San Andreas fault under a moonlit sky. The desert was quiet. A breeze fanned through the creosote. To the west, he could see the Salton Sea, and to the east, the headlamps of the night crew taking up their positions. In a little more than an hour, they would start detonating their explosives, generating seismic waves that would be recorded by seismometers buried throughout these sandy hills and positioned on the floor of the Salton Sea. A geophysicist with the United States Geological Survey, Fuis is overseeing an ambitious project to create an underground image of one of the most seismically active and geologically complex regions of the country, a triangle of land extending from Palm Springs to the Mexico border.

The level of devastation from this week's earthquake in New Zealand has some California scientists saying that the state's seismic building codes should be reevaluated to address the striking structural failures seen in Christchurch. In New Zealand, the quake destroyed many buildings of the types that California officials have long said are most vulnerable in a major temblor: Older unreinforced brick buildings and concrete-framed office buildings erected in the 1960s and '70s. There are thousands of such buildings in the state, and many have not been retrofitted to make them less vulnerable to shaking.

The "Big One" that has been forecast for the San Andreas fault could end up being bigger than earthquake experts previously thought. Recent research showing that a section of the fault is long overdue for a major earthquake has some scientists saying the southern portion of the fault is capable of a magnitude 8.1 earthquake that could run 340 miles from Monterey County to the Salton Sea. That's significantly stronger and longer than the...

Southern California is long overdue for a major earthquake along the San Andreas fault, according to a landmark study of historic seismic activity released Friday. The study, produced after several years of field studies in the Carrizo Plain area about 100 miles northwest of Los Angeles, found that earthquakes along the San Andreas fault have occurred far more often than previously believed. For years, scientists have said major earthquakes occurred every 250 to 450 years along this part of the San Andreas.

The San Andreas is the glamour fault, the crease in California's surface that grabs the headlines. But it is the lesser-known Newport-Inglewood Fault, which runs through the heart of coastal Orange County, Long Beach and West Los Angeles, that scientists say may deliver the really Big One. Geologically, the two faults are cousins.

Three months after a magnitude 7.2 earthquake erupted on the U.S.- Mexico border, seismologists are on a quest to determine whether the massive rupture put more pressure on fault lines in Southern California, increasing the likelihood of more temblors. The Easter Sunday quake was the largest to rock the region in nearly two decades, producing thousands of aftershocks and actually shifting the Earth's crust as much as 10 feet. Preliminary analysis shows that the Mexicali quake placed more pressure on at least two Southern California fault lines: the Elsinore and the San Jacinto.

Aerial photographer Bill Dewey can never forget the exhilaration he felt on his first airplane ride as a boy, flying among the clouds high above the Borrego Desert. "The magic of flying is astonishing," said Dewey of that initial flight courtesy of his dad, a World War II U.S. Army pilot. That thrill has stayed with him as he parlayed his passion for flying and photography into a career capturing the ever-changing Southern California landscape from a bird's-eye view. His recent photos will be on view this Saturday through May 2 at Easton Gallery in Montecito.