[Skywise]

http://abc7.com/science/double-whammy-of...s/1245937/

Quote:The infamous San Andreas Fault gets all the credit for being the likely cause one day of "The Big One" - a massive earthquake that would cause enormous devastation in terms of lives lost and buildings destroyed somewhere in Southern California.

But new research is showing a more likely culprit could actually be a smaller fault line.

An eruption by a smaller fault could trigger the larger fault and together they would create an unprecedented double whammy of destruction, researchers say.

More at link.

I'm not terribly surprised by this since both the Landers and Hector Mine quakes involved multiple "independent" faults.

Brian

[Island Chris]

Thanks Brian,

I was not aware of that work. But, I'd like to know whether this is purely based on a model, or if they have direct evidence that the San Jacinto fault ruptured in 1812. The evidence that the San Andreas broke in that year is damaged trees with roots disrupted by the fault, so that the tree rings show the year. The historic accounts are not good enough to pin down which fault. We still do not know where a M>7 quake 13 days later was.

Chris