San Andreas fault ‘locked, loaded and ready to roll’ with big earthquake, expert says in <"http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-san-andreas-fault-earthquake-20160504-story.html">this LA Times article.
The Pacific Plate and the North American Plate have continued to move, and yet there have been no significant earthquakes along the San Andreas Fault in quite a number of years, such that the two plates are 16 ft apart now. The longer this goes on without an earthquake to equalize the situation, the more intense the earthquake will be. It has not moved substantially since 1812.
If this quake goes “tomorrow”, geologists expect about a magnitude 8 earthquake. This is stronger than the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, but not as strong as the one in Chili that same year. The San Francisco Earthquake in 1906 was “only” a 7.8 magnitude. A magnitude 8 earthquake could be devastating to the region, although they plan better earthquake-proofing of their buildings. Historical earthquakes of that magnitude which hit major population centers produce great numbers of fatalities - ranging from several hundred to more than ten thousand.
It might not hit tomorrow, next year, or even this century. The longer it waits, the more intense and destructive it will be. Possibly to the point where everything east of the San Andreas Fault plunges into the Atlantic.
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