California mega-earthquake fear: Is the San Andreas fault at risk of the 'Big One'?

[techbeck]

New research suggests that a newly discovered 'structure' in the San Andreas fault line could result in a massive earthquake, often referred to as the "big one."

 

The geological study, written up in the journal Lithosphere, details that there is a 15 to 20 mile-long stretch of the San Andreas fault that could result in an earthquake with a magnitude of 7 or greater.

 

The research put the odds at 75 percent that it would occur in both northern and southern California sometime over the next 30 years.

 

"This newly identified Durmid ladder structure is a voluminous, right-reverse fault zone that broadens across Durmid Hill around rotating domains of regularly spaced, left- and right-lateral cross faults," a research article on the study reads.

 

The research was performed by Susanne Jänecke, Daniel Markowski, James Evans, Patricia Persaud and Miles Kenney.

 

The potential cause of a magnitude 7 or greater earthquake is the result of what is known as "slow earthquakes" or slow-slip events (SSEs) that go unnoticed by humans.

 

"Temporary episodes of creep acceleration, known as slow-slip events (SSEs), have been interpreted as earthquake precur-sors and as a possible triggering factor for major earthquakes," researchers Mostafa Khoshmanesh and Manoochehr Shirzaei wrote in a paper published in Nature, obtained by The Daily Mail.

 

The Durmid ladder structure is located in the Durmid Hill region of southern California, an area that is highly-faulted and between 0.6 and 2.5 miles wide. It has a broken ladder-like look to it, hence its name.

 

More....

http://www.foxnews.com/science/2018/06/21/california-mega-earthquake-fear-is-san-andreas-fault-at-risk-big-one.html

[+Zagadka Subscriber²]

Literally been hearing about The Big One for all of my 38 years, always with new discoveries and threats, and it was preached about long before that.

 

Can't predict these things. "Soon" may mean decades in geological terms. May also mean centuries, may also mean days. Which is why we continually prepare for it.