Narrator: Five steel high-rises could collapse completely, while 10 others will be red-tagged, or unsafe to enter. Ten years ago, Kim Blisniuk was hiking along the San Andreas fault in the Coachella Valley desert when she looked up and saw something spectacular in the rocks: channels running along the canyon that would later challenge scientists understanding of how quake damage in Southern California might shake out. The planet has a very complex configuration, it is not only a land mass covered by the sea in some regions, but it has a layered structure, each of which has an important function. From the channels they also calculated the strands slip rate. The main point is to protect your head and chest. The southern parts of the fault have. The San Andreas extends into Mexico. Canned food. Well, the fact is that there has not been a major release of stresses in the southern portion of the San Andreas fault system since 1857. All Rights Reserved. But restoring power in Southern California could take several days. A 112-mile (180 km) long creeping section exists on the central portion of the San Andreas between the 1857 and 1906 ruptures. 2023 Smithsonian Magazine [Watch]. ALSO READ:Why the California Earthquakes Were Back-to-Back. They cross through tunnels, cross through aqueducts near the surface. I have many photos about this day, I like this place because the San Andres sea is beautiful, is clean and see the marine life is really great. Related information about San Andreas Fault is shown on King 5's YouTube video below: RELATED ARTICLE: Forget San Andreas Fault; Biggest Earthquake Threat Is On This Overlooked Part. No-one knows exactly when or where, but that one day that energy will be unleashed. Theres very little we can say about anything happening south influencing the northern San Andreas.. EDITOR'S NOTE: This video was originally published in August 2019. Or at least, thats the scenario that will play out on the big screen in San Andreas. Communications networks, including internet and cellphone service, could be disrupted for days or longer if telecommunications lines are severed and if electricity is out. From building a kit to buying insurance, our Unshaken newsletter course will help you prepare. Or at least, that's the. By measuring for cosmic radiation and certain minerals in the rocks, they determined the formations were between 25,000 and 95,000 years old. The fact that the San Andreas fault makes a right step in the offshore region means that during earthquake rupture the sea floor is downdropped in the stepover region, resulting in the generation of a tsunami. Everything a city relies on to functionwater, electricity, sewage systems, telecommunications, roadswould be damaged and possibly not repaired for more than a year. What are you going to do? These seasonal winds blow dusty, dry air from inland toward the coast, increasing risks of wildfires. No one alive today has experienced such an earthquake in this region. Smaller fires merge into larger ones, taking out whole sections of Los Angeles. John Stewart: The building code, with its minimum requirements, does not ensure that the building will be serviceable after an earthquake. Big earthquakes on the San Andreas Fault are inevitable, and by geologic standards extremely common, but probably will not be exactly like this one. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. Though most modern buildings survive the shaking, many are rendered structurally unusable. It would surely lead to landslides and conceivably chemical spills. We've had bridges collapse during past earthquakes. Like water, electricity, being able to drive where you need to drive. That doesnt mean California is off the hook, though. More so, the minute a slight tremor is felt, a lot of people will feel an abrupt wave of anxiety, feeling it will be the "big one.". Scientists think were about 80 years past when an earthquake should have occurred and say its not a matter of if, but when one will hit Southern California. Up to 1 million people could be displaced from their homes. More than 38 million people live near the fault, so a major earthquake would greatly affect large cities. An earthquake estimated at magnitude 7.9 ruptured about 220 miles the San Andreas fault from the town of Parkfield in Central California to Cajon Pass in southwest San Bernardino County. Advertising Notice In the film, the San Andreas fault produces an earthquake with a magnitude of 9.0. The aqueducts that bring in 88% of Los Angeles water and cross the San Andreas fault could be damaged or destroyed, Jones has told The Times. Scientists have a good big picture understanding of the San Andreas Fault Zone (SAFZ). The southern parts of the fault have remained inactive for over 200 years. Basically something that we as a civilization have trouble creating, short of, like, a nuclear explosion. The window to the world of. It had a magnitude of 6. These channels indicated to Blisniuk that a part of the notorious San Andreas fault in the San Bernardino Mountains called the Mission Creek Strand is moving much faster than previously thought. The best thing to do, like we always say, is duck, cover, and hold. In the event that a major earthquake happens, areas in this one will experience the highest amount of casualties, damage, and impact. What will happen with the San Andreas Fault? Why is Frank McCourt really pushing it? Scientists have been studying and monitoring the Sand Andreas fault line that started moving about 30 million years ago and has since then horizontally slipped a total of 186-220 miles (300-350 kilometers). She and her collaborators collected rocks and pebbles from the bottom of the channels and took them back to the lab for dating. Are we due for a tsunami? For years, conventional wisdom was that the Garnet Hill and Banning strands, which stretch around the Coachella Valley and into the San Bernardino Mountains, held the most strain. So the answer to this question depends on what you mean by "rupture." The largest historic quake on this fault was the 1857 Fort Tejon quake, which produced up to 44 feet of offset on the fault, versus 20 f. The main layers that make up the Earth are first, its core, which is then covered by the mantle, and finally, the Earths crust. The fault trends northwestward for more than 800 miles (1,300 km) from the northern end of the Gulf of California through western California, U.S., passing seaward into the Pacific Ocean in the vicinity of San Francisco. 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On an individual level, homeowners can retrofit their property to better hold up against shaking. The U.S. Geological Survey calculated those quakes as having violent shaking, or an intensity of 9 on a 10-point scale. So the power of a magnitude 7.8 earthquake is probably close to the power used in the whole state for a year. Meaning, the San Andreas is running right through San Francisco. . San Andrs is located 750 kilometers (470 miles) northwest of mainland Colombia and only 150 kilometers (93 miles) off the coast of Nicaragua.The smaller island of Providencia is a 3.5-hour ferry ride to the north, and while the islands have historically been tied to Spain, Great Britain, Africa, and Holland, they were the subject of a long-running battle between Colombia and Nicaragua until . While the actual threats from the Big One are pretty terrifying, they are nowhere near the devastation witnessed by Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson and his onscreen companions. The advice is to protect your head and chestprotect your personal safety. Imagine America without Los Angeles, Jones posits. In simple terms, the San Andreas is one of many fault systems roughly marking the border between the Pacific and North American tectonic plates. There have been earthquakes that have produced thousands. On the other hand LA has a lot more stuff to break than San Franciscoa lot of it is pretty old. The number of victims would amount to more than 50,000 people affected by the movement, hence the great importance of construction regulations and action measures in the event of a disaster of this nature. Those in red were between -105 and 637 feet above sea level, while those in green lives 638 to 1,274 feet above sea level, and those living in an elevated area of more than 1275 feet above sea level were in green which mainly consists of mountainous areas and was given the lowest rank because fewer people would be affected by the earthquake there. Remember: The moment you feel an earthquake, drop to the ground, cover your head and neck with your arms, or get under a sturdy piece of furniture nearby, and hold on. And schools, businesses and families can participate in ShakeOut drillsthe next one is on October 15to practice what theyll need to do on earthquake day. What exactly is a "Big One," and where could such an earthquake hit? Why Do Space Programs Keep Sending Music To Space. Southern San Andreas fault (Southern California), magnitude 7.8: 1,800 dead, 50,000 injured, $200 billion in damage, more than 250,000 displaced from homes ( scenario website ). You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times. Cookie Policy Later in 1906, another earthquake occurred in the central section, which ended in the lives of 3,000 people in the city of San Francisco. Hours without power is tough, but what about Bay Area communitys two weeks? File photo: Los Angeles pictured from above, Workers move waste containing radiated soil, leaves and debris from the decontamination operation at a storage site in Naraha town, which is inside the formerly no-go zone of a 12 mile radius around the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, August 24, 2013.