San Andreas Fault – can California specifically Los Angeles slip into the ocean if big earthquick hits?
Mar 01, 2010
in
Earthquake Questions
San Andreas Fault – can California specifically Los Angeles slip into the ocean if big earthquick hits?
I read the goverment has already names for those bays they going to be created in the LA and San Francisco area . Should be Bay of Prosperity and Bay of Harmony.
I have three kids and live in LA. I am little worry, could this really happen? Scientist on TV aid there is not space in the ocean for us to slip into?
What is the truth?
Thank you
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9 comments
Samantha on March 1, 2010 at 7:02 pm
if there were an earthquake big enough to do that, you be worrying about more than just your kids
giftfromgod on March 1, 2010 at 7:02 pm
That was the plot of one of the old superman movies. Don’t worry, if there is an earthquake big enough to do that, I promise you won’t feel a thing.
babyb on March 1, 2010 at 7:02 pm
I heard a few things about it too. My husband is convinced its gonna happen. I’m not too worried I don’t really care for los angeles its yuaky
Philip on March 1, 2010 at 7:02 pm
No, earthquakes don’t cause areas of flat land to move horizontally. Los Angeles, San Fransisco and California CAN NOT slip into the ocean.
That doesn’t make earthquakes any less deadly. I’m not sure about the LA soil, but the SF soil is loose sand which could liquefy because of an earthquake. (the result: collapsing buildings).
California is an earthquake sensitive area. They could happen while your kids are there, they could not. Millions of people live there, and they don’t fear it. But anyway, areas of land slipping into the ocean are impossible.
Superman? I thought it was 2012 (the 2009 disaster movie).
Hoosier G on March 1, 2010 at 7:02 pm
The plates move up the coast not away from the north american continent…
See:http://www.livescience.com/mysteries/070220_california_fault.html
Aaron on March 6, 2011 at 12:02 pm
@ Hoosier G, actually look up plate tectonics before you respond specifically Subduction zone faults.
plates move under other plates all the time. how do you think the continents are moving toward each other? were is all that land going. The plates float on the magma constantly shifting moving up and under each other side by side and colliding moving sometimes upward
it is not impossible nor improbable that part of LA will eventually break from from the continent the specifics of how and when are unpredictable.
after all half of LA is on a completely different tectonic plate than the continental US http://walrus.wr.usgs.gov/earthquakes/cencal/images/P-NAP.gif
I personally studied geography and plate tectonics so im not just stating random opinions, ohh and liquefaction as you stated can cause areas of land to sink into the ocean so your also contradicting yourself after all land is just the visual expression of plate above the sea level
MM on March 13, 2011 at 12:31 am
But couldn’t the land West of the San Andreas fault shift down so that coastal areas are below sea level?
jackie on March 14, 2011 at 9:15 am
What i have heard is that marsh land (ex Bolsa Chica wet lands) can turn to quicksand in a large enough quake.
YouhaveNOclue on March 22, 2011 at 6:10 pm
@ Aaron…I’m so glad you studied GEOGRAPHY and plate tectonics, maybe if you studied GEOLOGY you would have some clue as to what you were saying. The San Andreas which the cities of LA and San Francisco (among others) sit on is NOT a subduction zone fault, it is a transform/strike-slip fault, right-lateral to be exact. The Pacific Plate is moving Northwest while the North American Plate is moving Southwest. It is not a divergent or convergent. Therefore, in millions of years, LA will become part of San Francisco, and later….Alaska. Besides, the oceans are not pits of watery despair, they consist of oceanic crustal plate that just has water sitting on top of it. So, the oceanic Pacific crust will have to move in order for the North American continental plate to move in it’s place. Also, the magnitude of an earthquake is relative to the size/length of a fault, so because the fault is relatively small compared to others in the world, it is highly unlikely that anything close to a cataclysmic quake that could somehow dislodge California from the rest of the country. Bottom line, Angelinos need to get ready for Northern California weather and not for life in the bottom of the ocean.