Will California eventually fall into the ocean?
No, California is not going to fall into the ocean. California is firmly planted on the top of the earth’s crust in a location where it spans two tectonic plates. The San Andreas Fault System, which crosses California from the Salton Sea in the south to Cape Mendocino in the north, is the boundary between the Pacific Plate (that includes the Pacific Ocean) and North American Plate (that includes North America). These two plates are moving horizontally, slowly sliding past one another. The Pacific Plate is moving northwest with respect to the North American Plate at approximately 46 millimeters per year (the rate your fingernails grow). The strike-slip earthquakes on the San Andreas Fault are a result of this plate motion. There is nowhere for California to fall, however, Los Angeles and San Francisco will one day be adjacent to one another!
Learn more:
Earthquakes, Megaquakes, and the Movies
What Kind of Movement Has Occurred Along the San Andreas Fault?
Related Content
Do solar flares or magnetic storms (space weather) cause earthquakes?
Solar flares and magnetic storms belong to a set of phenomena known collectively as "space weather". Technological systems and the activities of modern civilization can be affected by changing space-weather conditions. However, it has never been demonstrated that there is a causal relationship between space weather and
...Read Full Answer
Can some people sense that an earthquake is about to happen (earthquake sensitives)?
There is no scientific explanation for the symptoms some people claim to have preceding an earthquake, and more often than not there is no earthquake following the symptoms.
Read Full Answer
Can the ground open up during an earthquake?
Shallow crevasses can form during earthquake-induced landslides, lateral spreads, or from other types of
...Read Full Answer
Is there earthquake weather?
In the 4th Century B.C., Aristotle proposed that earthquakes were caused by winds trapped in subterranean caves. Small tremors were thought to have been caused by air pushing on the cavern roofs, and large ones by the air breaking the surface. This theory lead to a belief in earthquake weather, that because a large amount
...Read Full Answer
Can animals predict earthquakes?
The earliest reference we have to unusual animal behavior prior to a significant earthquake is from Greece in 373 BC. Rats, weasels, snakes, and centipedes reportedly left their homes and headed for safety several days before a destructive earthquake. Anecdotal evidence abounds of animals, fish, birds, reptiles, and insects
...Read Full Answer
Why are we having so many earthquakes? Has naturally occurring earthquake activity been increasing? Does this mean a big one is going to hit? OR We haven't had any earthquakes in a long time; does this mean that the pressure is building up for a big one?
A temporary increase or decrease in seismicity is part of the normal fluctuation of earthquake rates. Neither an increase or decrease worldwide is a positive indication that a large earthquake is imminent.
The ComCat earthquake catalog contains an increasing
...Read Full Answer
Can "MegaQuakes" really happen? Like a magnitude 10 or larger?
No, earthquakes of magnitude 10 or larger cannot happen. The magnitude of an earthquake is related to the length of the fault on which it occurs. That is, the longer the fault, the larger the earthquake. A fault is a break in the rocks that make up the Earth's crust, along which rocks on either side have moved past each
...Read Full Answer
Can you predict earthquakes?
No. Neither the USGS nor any other scientists have ever predicted a major earthquake. We do not know how, and we do not expect to know how any time in the foreseeable future. An earthquake prediction must define 3 elements: 1) the date and time, 2) the location, and 3) the magnitude.
Yes, some people
...Read Full Answer
Are earthquakes associated with variations in the geomagnetic field?
Electromagnetic variations have been observed after earthquakes, but despite decades of work, there is no convincing evidence of electromagnetic precursors to earthquakes. It is worth acknowledging that geophysicists would actually love to demonstrate the reality of such precursors, especially if they could be used for
...Read Full Answer
Vertical tectonic deformation associated with the San Andreas fault zone offshore of San Francisco, California
A new fault map of the shelf offshore of San Francisco, California shows that faulting occurs as a distributed shear zone that involves many fault strands with the principal displacement taken up by the San Andreas fault and the eastern strand of the San Gregorio fault zone. Structures associated with the offshore faulting show compressive...
Ryan, H.F.; Parsons, T.; Sliter, R.W.
Where's the San Andreas fault? A guidebook to tracing the fault on public lands in the San Francisco Bay region
Stoffer, Philip W.
Putting down roots in earthquake country: Your handbook for the San Francisco Bay region
This handbook provides information about the threat posed by earthquakes in the San Francisco Bay region and explains how you can prepare for, survive, and recover from these inevitable events. If you live or work in the region, you need to know why you should be concerned with earthquakes, what you can expect during and after a quake, and what...
The USGS Earthquake Hazards Program - investing in a safer future
Filson, John R.; McCarthy, Jill; Ellsworth, William L.; Zoback, Mary Lou; Stauffer, Peter H.; Hendley, James W.
ANSS-Advanced National Seismic System
Benz, Harley M.; Filson, John; Arabasz, Walter; Gee, Lind; Wald, Lisa USGS National Seismic Hazard Maps
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) recently completed new probabilistic seismic hazard maps for the United States, including Alaska and Hawaii. These hazard maps form the basis of the probabilistic component of the design maps used in the 1997 edition of the NEHRP Recommended Provisions for Seismic Regulations for New Buildings and Other Structures...
Frankel, A.D.; Mueller, C.S.; Barnhard, T.P.; Leyendecker, E.V.; Wesson, R.L.; Harmsen, S.C.; Klein, F.W.; Perkins, D.M.; Dickman, N.C.; Hanson, S.L.; Hopper, M.G. Forecasting California’s earthquakes
The first official earthquake forecast for California emphasizes the broad extent of the hazard and the uncertainties involved in predicting the next quakes. For the first time, researchers have reached to a consensus on the threat of large earthquakes to California, things look no worse for Los Angles than before. It still has about a 60 percent...
Kerr, R. A.
Quaternary faults of California
Lienkaemper, J.J.
Zoogeographic evidence for late Tertiary lateral slip on the San Andreas fault, California
Addicott, W.O.
California Can Learn From Recent Large Earthquakes
A new report issued by the American Red Cross and the U.S. Geological Survey documents the Chilean response and recovery efforts following the Feb. 2010 magnitude 8.8 earthquake and the lessons that California should learn from this disaster.
Geologists Recover Rocks Yielding Unprecedented Insights into San Andreas Fault
For the first time, geologists have extracted intact rock samples from 2 miles beneath the surface of the San Andreas Fault, the infamous rupture that runs 800 miles along the length of California.
A Strong Earthquake Shakes Central California Fulfilling USGS' Parkfield Forecast
Calling it "one of the most significant earthquakes in the history of seismology," William Ellsworth, chief scientist for the USGS Earthquake Hazards program in California, today commended efforts to densely instrument the location of the September 28th Parkfield 2004 Earthquake.
Coastal ecosystem studies at Trinidad coast, California.
Photograph looks southwest onto the town of Pacifica, California and out to the Pacific Ocean, from Sweeney Ridge Trail.
by Morgan Page, USGS Research Geophysicist
- Scientists cannot currently predict the precise time, location, and size of future damaging earthquakes.
- Historical records of earthquakes in California date back over 150 years.
- Geologists have dug trenches to extend the known history on some faults back to around 1,000 years before today!
- We are learning more about the behavior of large earthquakes, such as the possibility for earthquakes to "link up" multiple geologic faults and the ability of one earthquake to trigger others.
- This information is being used to develop new, sophisticated earthquake forecasting models and to better determine the likely effects of future earthquake in California.
Colorful vegetated clifftop near Half Moon Bay, California.
Homes along the edge of the coast in Isla Vista, California, Santa Barbara County, face a short lifespan because of eroding bluffs that support them.
Aerial photo of the San Andreas Fault in the Carrizo Plain. By Ikluft - Own work, GFDL, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3106006