The Salton Trough Fault can explain why an expected earthquake is yet to hit Southern California. Previously, undiscovered, scientists have located the line along the eastern edge of the Salton Sea.
Considering its underwater location, the crack that is parallel to the San Andreas fissure has been difficult to find. Seismologists are banking on the recent discovery to further improve their understanding on the dynamics of the long overdue catastrophe.
A fault imposes a crack on the earth's surface. In active ones like the San Andreas, the edges move alongside the fissure, instigating more and more earth-shaking moments. The San Andreas Fault is rather huge, spreading 1,300 km or around 800 miles across California and connecting the Pacific and North American Plates.
Along this part, the fissure comes into existence about 30 million years ago during the Cenozoic Period. However, the highly-active southern location, which was found by UC Berkeley's Andrew Lawson in 1895, has been formed 5 million years ago.
Over the last 300 years, confusion has risen as to why Southern California has been devoid of major quakes. Normally, the southern area undergoes large-scale seismic movements every 175 to 200 years.
Based on the Salton rift, experts believe that the present approach in terms of stress transfer and rupture dynamics in the region will be modified. Views on fault models and ground motion simulations will also be amended.
The discovery of the Trough fissure has garnered considerable and exceptional attention since a series of around 200 small-scale earthquakes occurred at the Salton Sea. The event has ignited concerns that a perceived magnitude 8 earth-shaking calamity will happen along the San Andreas Fault.
According to the US Geological Survey, it is likely that a magnitude 7 or greater earthquake will commence in the region. Casualties in the populated communities of Los Angeles, San Francisco and Palm Springs are a major concern.
