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Newly Discovered Fault Under L.A.

Posted by michael on from the here-i-sit-on-the-head-of-mount-tam dept.

Randolpho writes "Whether you like the city or not, you can't say Los Angeles doesn't have a fault. It does, and it's one of earth-shattering proportions. Geologists have confirmed that LA was built right over a faultline, which they're calling the Puente Hills Blind Thrust System; it runs from northern Orange County through Los Angeles on up to Beverly Hills, and has a habbit of ripping earthquakes as large as 7.5 on the Richter Scale every 10 thousand years or so. And the last one was about 8 thousand years ago."

42 of 231 comments (clear)

  1. La has a Fault? by BuckaBooBob · · Score: 5, Funny

    naa! Can't be :).. I guess Insurance Companies earthquake Periums will go way up in about 1800 years or so.

    --
    Who needs WiFi when we can have Packet Over Sheep! http://datacomm.org/PoS-InternetDraft.txt
  2. I sure picked a fine time to move to LA by anonymous+loser · · Score: 4, Funny

    I just got here, and now you're telling me I'm due for a huge earthquake?

    Well, I suppose on the bright side, if it's true I might be able to afford buying that house after all.

  3. Name already taken? by worst_name_ever · · Score: 4, Funny
    LA was built right over a faultline, which they're calling the Puente Hills Blind Thrust System

    And to think, all this time I thought that was how Hollywood executives mate...

    --

    In Soviet Rush, today's Tom Sawyer gets high on you.
  4. New fault by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    So in a way, you could say this is a continental segmentation fault?

    8-)

  5. God damn it! by Ciel · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...so you mean to say that we may have 2,000 years left to wait?

    Argh!

    The wheels of justice turn slowly indeed...

  6. What to do? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    I'm not American, but as I understand your legal system, the correct thing to do is sue the scientists, right?

  7. When You Re-post This Story in 2000 Years by n3rd · · Score: 2, Funny

    I'm sure you'll be hearing cries of "dupe, dupe!".

    1. Re:When You Re-post This Story in 2000 Years by k-0s · · Score: 2

      Or something witty like in Californian Los Angeles the faultlines find You!

      --

      Visit www.seriouslythough.com

  8. Horror storys! by Neophytus · · Score: 2, Interesting

    We are always told every few months the earth is overdue a major earthquake, eruption, ice collapse, comet or other worldwide catastrophy. If it happens it will happen, but for now I'm happy where I am away from any of them.

    1. Re:Horror storys! by big_groo · · Score: 4, Funny
      We are always told every few months the earth is overdue a major earthquake, eruption, ice collapse, comet or other worldwide catastrophy. If it happens it will happen, but for now I'm happy where I am away from any of them.

      And you exactly are ... where?

  9. Hollywood by huhmz · · Score: 4, Funny

    I can see a Jerry Bruckheimer production coming

  10. You know you've spent too much time online... by GQuon · · Score: 5, Funny

    ..when you read
    Geologists have confirmed that LA was built right over a faultline

    as

    Googlists have confirmed that LA was built right over a faultline

    and thinking

    "What? People can make scientific discoveries by searching the internet?"

    I have to go lie down now.

    --
    Irene KHAAAAAAN!
  11. Who is to blame? by paranoos · · Score: 5, Funny

    I blame Los Angeles. It's their own fault, after all.

  12. Puente Hills has a mall that was shown in BTTF... by antdude · · Score: 4, Interesting

    FYI. The Twin Pines Mall (name replaced Puente Hills Mall), in the first movie of Back to the Future Trilogy, is located in this area.

    You can see photographs and information here and here.

    --
    Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
  13. From the article by Vinnie_333 · · Score: 3, Funny
    "Earthquakes don't kill people, buildings do." Of course, by that logic:

    Sharks don't kill people, looking like a seal does.

    Explosions don't kill people, debris does.

    Knives don't kill people, a thrusting motion does.

    --

    "We shall party like the Greeks of old! You know the ones I mean." - HedonismBot
    1. Re:From the article by spoonist · · Score: 2, Funny

      And you mustn't forget the physics classic:

      It's not the fall that kills you, it's the rapid deceleration.

  14. Re:YOU SIR, ARE GAY. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    Please refrain from using the term "gay" to imply "stupid." Unless he really is gay. In which case...is he hot?

    Wait a second. This is Slashdot. Oops.

  15. A better more technical article by Tycho · · Score: 3, Informative

    CNN has an article on this new fault that is slightly less confusing. You can find it here.

    --
    Impersonating Tycho from Penny Arcade since before there was a PA.
  16. The fault is above ground... by acroyear · · Score: 4, Funny

    You know, by the description here, it sounds like its running exactly under I-405, the Santa Monica freeway, which is already one of the biggest faults LA's ever had...

    --
    "But remember, most lynch mobs aren't this nice." (H.Simpson)
    -- Joe
  17. Youth Brigade had it right... by TheSHAD0W · · Score: 2


    And we'll sink with Californiaaa, when it falls into the seaaaaaaaaa...

  18. A silly article by Safety+Cap · · Score: 2, Interesting
    The only thing of note is that this puts to rest the thought that blind thrust faults cannot exist (which is kind of stupid, if you think about it).

    The article names one of the thousands of faults in the LA basin, and probably one or the 10 or so that could cause serious damage.

    The Newport-Inglewood fault is also another one that you don't hear about (for you Los Angelinos, it runs right under the 405 and up through Westwood - go Bruins!), but it has as much potential to cause damage as any other.

    What is interesting is that they were able to accurately measure the folded sandstone (anyone know what units? It's too deep to be QAL) clearly enough at depth.

    The rate of earthquakes on the west coast is high - you'll see a 2 on the Richter every few days, but you won't notice it.

    Seeing as how the San Andreas last popped near Ft. Tejon in the mid 1800s, that is the one that would scare me: it moved about 30' back then. With the #$(#@ government allowing developers to build on top of the fault zone, some poor schlubs are going to find the remains of their living room 30 feet away from the remains of the rest of their home. Or rubble.

    Just make sure your earthquake kit is up-to-date and don't sweat it. It could be worse: it could be Seattle (an earthquate caused by Juan de Fuca plate movement could cause a Tsunami AND erupt that little ol' volcano they have just outside the city). Do'o.

    --
    Yeah, right.
    1. Re:A silly article by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

      >The only thing of note is that this puts to rest the thought that blind thrust faults cannot exist

      I don't think the existence of blind thrusts has ever been a question. Structural geologists have been quite aware of that type of structure for some time. Indeed, the question isn't even if blind thrusts are a seismic problem -- the Northridge earthquake in 1994 was on a blind thrust. The problem with blind thrusts is that there is no easy way to tell where they are, principally because (by definition) they don't "daylight" i.e. reach the surface. The cool thing about this study is that paleosiesmologists have documented a previoiusly-unknonwn blind thrust fault in an urban area (a major seismic hazard) using well data and geophysics. Not only that, but they mananged to place constraints on it's prior movement history and its recurrence interval. A nice piece of important work.

    2. Re:A silly article by Iguanaphobic · · Score: 3, Informative

      It could be worse: it could be Seattle (an earthquate caused by Juan de Fuca plate movement could cause a Tsunami AND erupt that little ol' volcano they have just outside the city).

      Not to mention the potential strength of the next "Big One" in the Seattle/Vancouver area. 8 Million people, suddenly swimming...

      The Cascadia Megathrust Event is due.

      --
      Fascism should more properly be called corporatism, since it is the merger of state and corporate power.
    3. Re:A silly article by edhall · · Score: 2, Informative

      Actually, LA takes as many seismic precautions than any other metropolis in the world (probably equalled only by Tokyo). Evidence of this is that the only apartment building to actually collapse in the Northridge 'quake had serious code problems. Scores more were rendered uninhabitable, but among apartment buildings only the Northridge Meadows complex pancaked; it was later discovered that it had been built without some of the required reinforcing between floors. Most of the rest of the country has no such requirements, and under the building codes in, say, St. Louis, you would have had dozens of Northridge Meadows.

      The problem with the Puente Hills fault is that it goes right under downtown. Although the buildings there are designed to withstand a large earthquake on more distant faults, they weren't designed for a Northridge-style event right under them. (Northridge was 6.8 Richter, more or less the size of event expected on the Puente Hills fault.)

      I lived around a mile from the Northridge epicenter, in West Van Nuys. Real Estate values in our neighborhood went down briefly, and didn't start climbing until a year and a half later. But the market hardly colapsed. (It helped that the houses in our area were well-built, with only those with second-story add-ons suffering much, if any, structural damage.) Nobody I know moved to Phoenix. When we sold our house four years later, we got what we expected for it, around 20% more than its valuation shortly before the Northridge quake occured.

      -Ed
  19. This is silly by mbone · · Score: 4, Informative

    This is silly - if not FUD for grant money.

    The LA basin is about 1 to 30 kilometers of rubble on top of a very active basement of solid rock which is riddled with active faults like a piece of dropped china is riddled with cracks. All of the rubble (alluvium) makes it hard to see active faults as they are buried deep.

    Basically every big earthquake that LA has experienced (with the exception of the large one the San Andreas fault in the 1840's) has been on a previously unknown fault.

    So, earthquakes happen, but our ability to tell exactly where they will be is near nil.

  20. Re:Dimwit. by monadicIO · · Score: 2, Funny
    You didn't have to point out the bad fucking pun with capitalisation.

    Normally, I would let this pass. In this CASE, I think you're being to SENSITIVE. Doesn't your rant CAPITALISE on my capitalisation too? Aren't we all at FAULT?

    --

    The law of excluded middle : Either I'm foo or I'm foobar

  21. Shocking by MourningBlade · · Score: 2, Funny

    I found out about this story on news.google.com

    Slashdot's report was the highest ranked one - above National Geographic, and the Los Angeles Daily.

    In the "honorable mention" category were CNN and NBC.

    If only I could see the faces of the editors for those news agencies when they saw that...

  22. Book on LA and Earthquakes by wdavies · · Score: 2, Informative

    Mike Davis's book, Ecology of Fear: Los Angeles and the Imagination of Disaster,is a pretty good liberal read about LA and its various geological and meteorological issues. You might also check out his City of Quartz as well if you really hate the place :-)

    Amazon associate link $11.20


    Amazon, no associate link
    $11.20

    (Barnes and Noble, no affiliate link)
    $12.60

    Winton

  23. ObSimpsons Quote by Rob.Mathers · · Score: 2, Funny

    "Let's goLet's go burn down the observatory so this will never happen again."
    - Moe, after the comet that was going to destroy Springfeild burns up in the atmosphere

    --

    My other sig is funny!
  24. Life imitates "art" by Fjord · · Score: 2, Interesting


    Like or hate hollywood megamovies, Volcano was based on the premis of an undiscovered fault line having a molten eruption. Very good insight on what actually could happen given this (but still a movie). Plus it has Tommy Lee Jones.

    --
    -no broken link
    1. Re:Life imitates "art" by angst_ridden_hipster · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Yeah. Good insight.

      Uh-huh.

      They confuse a tar pit with volcanic activity.

      They represent a fallen glass and steel building as a good deflector for flowing lava.

      And they didn't even get the geography of LA right.

      Whoever did the science research and fact-checking for that film had an undergraduate degree in medieval poetry or something, but certainly not geology.

      Might as well watch Star Trek to learn about quantum theory.

      --
      Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachtani?
      www.fogbound.net
  25. Well... by meme_police · · Score: 2, Insightful

    ...since we seem to have significant earthquakes every decade here in SoCal I'm not too concerned about a 7.5 in the next 2 millenia.

    --

    The meme police, They live inside of my head

  26. USGS recent earthquake maps by wattersa · · Score: 2, Informative

    These are maps showing magnitude, fault, date, and so on. You can also view "shakemaps" and other cool stuff.

    NEIC real-time list

    Los Angeles area seismicity map

    U.S. seismicity map

    World seismicity map

  27. Whittier fault? by sakusha · · Score: 2, Informative

    I heard exactly this same sort of story when I was living in downtown LA and the Whittier Quake happened (6.1 on the Richter scale IIRC). I wonder when that was, hmm.. must've been around 85 or 86? They said the Whittier Fault had the same potential to liquify the downtown subsoil. When it hit, I was in an unreinforced brick building just a couple of miles from the epicenter, I couldn't believe how much the ceiling beams shook, I thought the building was about to collapse. But anyway, I wonder just what is the big picture, there are a other newly discovered faults like the Whittier fault right through the downtown area, that's probably how that area originally became the flatter LA basin area, due to the repeated liquefaction of soil during quakes and subsequent resettling.

  28. Built right or wrongly by SmackCrackandPot · · Score: 2, Funny

    >Geologists have confirmed that LA was built right over a faultline,

    Looking on the bright side, that's better than having LA built wrongly over a faultline,

  29. Arizona Bay by jonathonc · · Score: 2, Funny

    In other news today the Big One hit LA creating a new resort called 'Arizona Bay'. Nobody was missed.

    1. Re:Arizona Bay by ChadN · · Score: 2, Funny

      TOOL LYRICS
      "Aenima" - abbreviated

      I've a suggestion to keep you all occupied...

      Learn to swim.
      Learn to swim.
      Learn to swim.
      Learn to swim.

      --
      "It's overkill, of course. But you can never have too much overkill." - Anonymous Slashdot Coward
  30. Geologists have it easy... by maunleon · · Score: 3, Funny

    How many other professions allow you to make a prediction with 2000+ years as error margin?

    I predict that within 2000 years, pigs will fly. Give me a grant. I promise to pay back all the money if I'm proven wrong.

  31. Re:Rebuiding Los Angeles by Loki_1929 · · Score: 2, Funny

    " Has Halliburton been assigned this contract yet?"

    Na, I hear some Iraqi contractor got it.

    --
    -- "Government is the great fiction through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else."
  32. Re:Redmond? by pyrote · · Score: 2, Funny

    From: God (god237@godshouse.god)
    to: Everyone
    Subject: Redmond

    Crap. They figured out the plan.

    --
    THE WORLD IS GOING TO END!!!! eventually.
  33. Re:Technical errors? by dacarr · · Score: 2, Interesting

    You know, I do concur - the path described is similar to the Whittier narrows fault, which runs through Chino Hills and Yorba Linda on its way to LA. Perhaps they're seeing offshoots of WN?

    --
    This sig no verb.
  34. Earthquakes don't have habits. by popmaker · · Score: 2, Informative

    Why do I always hear "This earthquake (or another) strikes every 1000 years". Earthquakes are not that predictable. So, no, the eathquake will not be there in 2000 years, it could be thera ANYTIME. No one in history has ever predicted an earthquake with a sufficient notice. I wonder when they will let go of the old geologists fantasy of "earthquake prediction".