The Bay Area’s Concord Fault — which is capable of unleashing a major earthquake — isn’t where scientists thought it was.
The fault runs for about 20 miles through Walnut Creek and Concord, from North Gate Road near Mount Diablo north to Suisun Bay. A previously unknown stretch, or strand, of the fault is actively moving about a tenth of an inch per year as it runs beneath residential neighborhoods in the Ygnacio Valley.
“Many of the people we have spoken to have noted their houses and yards being deformed, water lines being broken and other effects of the creep,” said Jessie Vermeer, a geologist with the U.S. Geological Survey, by email…