A new scientific study has found that parts of Southern California’s major fault systems are carrying some of the highest levels of tectonic stress recorded in the past 1,000 years, increasing concerns about the potential for a powerful future earthquake.
The research, led by scientists at the University of Bern in Switzerland and published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, does not predict when an earthquake will occur. However, it concludes that the region’s fault system is now under exceptionally high stress and identifies a key geological junction that could determine whether a future earthquake becomes significantly more destructive.
Scientists Examine More Than 1,000 Years of Earthquake History
The study was led by Dr. Liliane Burkhard from the Division of Space Research and Planetary Sciences at the University of Bern’s Physics Institute.
Researchers from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, the U.S. Geological Survey Earthquake Science Center in Pasadena, and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego also participated in the project…