Indeed Don, I have to agree with you.

The entire California coastline from San Diego, through LA, up into the SF Bay is just breath taking. There is nowhere else in our country that holds so much natural beauty. I think god every day that I live in California. Indeed all of this was created by the constant movement of the San Andreas Fault and all of its hundreds of fault branches that stretch out like branches from a trunk across our great state. As well as the volcanic past you mentioned.

When you think about it, we do have it really good when it comes to quakes. We have the best built structures, and California overall is seldomly hit with devasting quakes. This last century alone LA has only seen 3 major quakes in the metro area and SF 2. I say that is a really nice price we've paid when you see all the beauty around us.