Will California eventually fall off into the ocean?

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Welcome to CoreFacts, where we're always short on time and big on science. I'm Steve Sobieszczyk. Oh...I really like today's question.

Will California eventually fall off into the ocean?

Although it's a familiar plot device of criminal masterminds to both superheroes and super-agents, the answer is no. The San Andreas Fault System, for example, which crosses California from the Salton Sea in the south to Cape Mendocino in the north, is the boundary between the Pacific Plate and North American Plate. The Pacific Plate is moving in a northwest direction with respect to the North American Plate at approximately 46 millimeters per year, about the rate your fingernails grow. The strike-slip earthquakes on the San Andreas Fault are a result of this plate motion. The plates are moving horizontally past one another, so California will not fall into the ocean but instead L.A. will one day mosey on passed San Francisco one day.

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