A violent earthquake hasn’t shaken the San Francisco Bay Area since 1989. However, new research suggests that another strong quake on the San Andreas Fault could strike the region sooner than scientists had imagined.
The San Francisco Chronicle reported on the soon-to-be-published geology research by San Jose State professor Kim Blisniuk. She observed data that shows a section of the San Andreas Fault that runs through the Santa Cruz Mountains, south of San Francisco, could be moving faster than scientists previously believed, which would make the fault more conducive to earthquakes.
“In general faults with higher slip rates will have more frequent earthquakes and a probability of one,” Blisniuk told the Chronicle. “High slip rates faults generally have higher magnitude earthquakes due to potentially higher stress accumulation being released during an earthquake.”…