WHILE San Franciscans justifiably worry about living near the San Andreas fault, many forget that southern Californians too live in fear of their own “big one”. No major quake has struck the southern San Andreas fault in at least 250 years, and scientists say that the region is now primed for a release of the built-up tension.
A new study, by geophysicist Yuri Fialko of the University of California, San Diego, provides the most precise measurements yet of this accumulated strain – and it’s not a pretty picture. Deep within the Earth’s crust, the west side of the San Andreas…
