[Ed. – This is the third SOCAL fault in the last five years to be determined by a new study to not be so inactive after all. And that’s in addition to the one that runs much deeper than thought through Orange County (Newport-Inglewood; bonus: primordial helium and blueschist!), and the one offshore in the San Diego Trough that had started releasing methane before 2012.]
The conventional thinking has long been that the San Diego region faces less danger from a devastating earthquake than the Los Angeles or San Francisco areas.
But a new landmark study shows just how a fault running through the heart of San Diego poses a much more serious threat than believed a generation ago.
Researchers examined the effects of the Rose Canyon fault producing a plausible magnitude 6.9 earthquake, threatening the civic and financial center of California’s second largest city and the nation’s fourth biggest naval base, causing liquefaction and landslides.
