A new study from the US Geological Survey found that a 200-mile stretch of the San Andreas Fault just north of Los Angeles could be long overdue for a catastrophic earthquake. The study from the US Geological Survey also added that the 'Big Bend' section near Tejon Pass has experienced a major quake nearly every 100 years.
It has been 160 years since the last one, which caused an astonishing 185 miles of the San Andreas fault to have fractured. According to LA Times, the researchers pointed out that the land on both sides of the fault has been pushing against each other at a rate of more than an inch a year since 1857.
This accumulating energy is expected to be released in a major earthquake when the land along the fault would move by many feet. This means Central Los Angeles could experience several minutes of terrifying shakes compared with the 1994 Northridge earthquake, which shook for about 15 seconds.
However, the expected quake could probably be familiar to some of the existing residents, as the average magnitude of the 10 earthquakes found in the 1,200 years was about 7.5. The researchers also expect the earthquake would tear up land along the fault's length and displace it by an average of 9 feet.
The study was published online in the Journal of Geophysical Research, a publication of the American Geophysical Union on Thursday.
Despite being 30 miles away from the San Andreas fault, downtown Los Angeles is expected to experience a heavy shake from the earthquakes. To recap, a quake back in 1857 was tremendous enough to have had the soil liquefied, causing trees as far away as Stockton to sink. Trees were also uprooted west of Fort Tejon due to the three minutes shakes.
