The tectonic fault system known as Palos Verdes, which runs some 70 miles off the coast of Los Angeles and Orange counties, has the potential to trigger an earthquake measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale, according to a study by scientists at the Harvard University and reported by the Los Angeles Times.
Until now, the existence of this network of small faults was known, but the study suggests that they are connected in a tectonic structure from Santa Monica Bay to the waters of Dana Point.
This system could rupture under populated neighborhoods in the Los Angeles area, causing an earthquake comparable to the threat of the San Andreas fault: until now it was feared that they would cause a magnitude 7.4 tremor, but the new research raises the level to 7.8.
Although they seem only four tenths, the Richter scale measures exponentially, so that a tremor of 7.8 has four times more energy than one of 7.4, according to the aforementioned newspaper.
Thus, a possible tremor on that fault could combine the effects of the Northridge earthquakes in 1994, of magnitude 6.7, and Ridgecrest in 2019, of magnitude 7.1, according to John H. Shaw, professor of structural geology at Harvard and co-author of the studio.
Palos Verdes Coast.Getty Images
"Historically it's been seen as a segmented fault into many small pieces," Shaw said,
"it looked like it wasn't going to break in a big earthquake
. "
His study, published in the Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, however, points out that it is a system connected for 68 miles that also moves much faster than other fractures in that area.
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The effects of a possible earthquake would depend on the location of the epicenter.
A magnitude 7.8 tremor on the San Andreas fault could cause 1,800 deaths from collapsing buildings, according to a simulation published by the Geological Survey in 2008.
The last time California experienced a magnitude 7.8 earthquake was in 1857 when the San Andreas fault ruptured.
Seismologists believe that this fault can cause a tremor of up to magnitude 8.2.
They also estimate that a major earthquake can occur in this area every 100 years, although the period varies between just a few decades and up to two centuries.
