Time to talk about what I'm expert in, and give solar flares a rest....There was a M3.0 west of San Diego in the last 24 hours. It plots in an area between 2 right-lateral strike slip fault zones-the San Diego Trough fault to the west, and the Coronado Bank fault zone (of M. Legg), which may be linked to the Palos Verdes fault. The San Diego Trough fault cuts the youngest strata in the basin, and extends a long distance, so that if the whole thing fired off, it could be a large earthquake. The C.B. FZ is more complicated up shallow. One important issue is how deep these faults go-each is above a former Miocene (pre 5 milion yrs) low-angle normal fault. Perhaps they cut through and go deeper (seismic reflection suggests this). But, where strike-slip is the product of slip partitioning due to oblique slip at depth, there is no reason for these faults to cut deep. If they only extend 5 or 8 km down, they will not be capable of a very large earthquake, and are more likely to rupture in shorter pieces (IMHO).

There was a M~5.5 thrust earthquake along the strike of today's-farther north, in 1986 (The Oceanside quake). This quake occured beneath the San Diego Trough fault, but was probably on the low-angle fault-which is being reactivated as a thrust......OK, next time I feel like writing something useful I'll talk about active folds...namely the one that Palos Verdes Hills are part of. But now, it is beer and dinner, or vice versa. My TV is dead. I could get more work done now and become rich and famous. But, instead I think I'll get a new TV.....Chris