Earthquake beach – When will the Big One strike here?
Red marks Redondo Canyon Fault, yellow marks Palos Verdes Fault, green marks Compton Thrust Fault, blue marks Newport-Inglewood Fault. 3-D fault map courtesy Southern California Earthquake Center, USC As massive earthquakes strike Haiti and Chile, and cautious officials issue tsunami advisories even on our own local shores, the question resurfaces: When will the Big One strike here? Top seismologists warn that a great quake, one measuring 7.5 or greater on the Richter scale, is sure to one day shake Southern California with a destructive force much greater than that of Hurricane Katrina. The Big One, they say, will make the 1971 San Fernando Valley Earthquake and the 1994 Northridge Earthquake look like fender benders. Speculation about the looming great quake tends to focus upon the southern section of the San Andreas Fault, which experts say is long overdue for a shaker in the 7.8 range or higher that could lay waste to much of the area with an initial shock lasting minutes, not just seconds. But other Big Ones may lurk below our own geologically-fragile area, waiting to roar up from a number of smaller faults that snake underground around the South Bay. While these faults might…
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