finding fault in los angeles

As if smog, endless traffic, and Joan Rivers weren’t bad enough, you’ve got major earthquakes to worry about in LA, too. Researchers from the University of California have found a new fault buried under Los Angeles that may have been responsible for at least four large-magnitude earthquakes in the past 11,000 years, they report in the April 4 issue of Science. The Puente Hills Blind Thrust fault is about two miles deep and extends from Orange County to Beverly Hills. Using data from the oil industry and research bore holes, the scientists studied sediment layers over the hidden fault and found evidence of four earthquakes with a magnitude greater than seven on the Richter scale. The authors note that the 6.0 magnitude 1987 Whittier Narrows earthquake appeared along a segment of the fault, “demonstrating that the fault system is active and capable of generating damaging earthquakes.”

This news brief appeared in the Random Data column of the Boston Globe’s Health/Science section on 4/08/2003.