Scientists modeled a millennium of earthquake history and found unusually high stress accumulating along major Southern California faults.
For more than 150 years, Southern California’s most powerful faults have been storing energy deep underground. While the region experiences frequent small earthquakes, geologists know that the largest and most damaging events are separated by long periods of relative quiet as tectonic stress steadily accumulates.
Much of that stress is concentrated along the San Andreas and San Jacinto faults, two major fault systems that accommodate the movement between the Pacific and North American tectonic plates. Northeast of Los Angeles, the faults converge near Cajon Pass, a geologically complex junction that has long intrigued scientists because a rupture on one fault could potentially spread onto the other…