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Brief summary about San Andreas fault?
Hello! Thanks for your question about San Andreas fault. The short version is that the SAFZ is about 810 miles (1300 km) long and is divided into three segments. Below you will find a deep dive of my findings.
Deep-dive
Discovered in 1985 by Professor Andrew Lawson, a professor from UC Berkeley, the San Andreas fault zone (SAFZ) covers Hayward, Calaveras, and the Northern San Andreas in Northern California and covers Southern San Andreas, San Jacinto, and Los Angeles in Southern California. SAFZ is about 810 miles (1300 km) long and is divided into three segments. According to the USGS, the SAFZ has a characteristic horizontal or strikes-lip right-lateral movement and slipped a total of about 300-350 km (186-220 mi) since it started moving some 28-30 million years ago. It slips about 33 to 37 millimeters every year.
According to Lloyd Busch, the author of "Passive Resistance", recent scientific data collected from multiple GPS stations indicate that the removal and depletion of water in the large underground aquifers is altering the movement along the San Andreas fault. It is suspected that this change in movement could lead to more or larger earthquakes. Scientist are speculating that the next mega-quake may affect the faults along the Aleutian Islands, the Cascadia Subduction Zone, and the San Andreas fault. There is further evidence that the 2004 Sumatra earthquake further damaged the San Andreas fault.
Major earthquakes
* Southern segment : Year 1680 (Magnitude: 7.7 Mw), Year 1812 (Magnitude: 7.5 Mw) and Year 1857 (Magnitude: 7.9 Mw)
other notes
* A detailed study of the San Andreas fault can be retrieved from the geological survey conducted by the US Department of the Interior.
CONCLUSION
To wrap it up, the SAFZ is about 810 miles (1300 km) long and is divided into three segments. Thanks for using Wonder! Please let us know if we can help with anything else!