A new study by Scripps Institution of Oceanography indicates a considerable amount of strain is building on the southern end of the San Andreas fault, and could result in a significant earthquake at any moment.
The study, led by Scripps' geologist Yuri Fialko, is comprised of more than 20 years' worth of detailed data, and suggests the two plates on either side of the southern San Andreas fault are slipping past each other at 25 millimetres per year.
Without a recent quake to alleviate that pressure, the fault line could result in a magnitude 8.0 earthquake. The southern end of the San Andreas fault has remained static for three centuries.
The study was published in today's issue of the journal
Nature
.
