Earthquakes in the San Francisco Bay Area

Paper Summary:

An analysis of how both minor and major faults can lead to earthquakes. The paper includes a summary of the background of the Bay Area and explains how not all the earthquakes are found in the regions where the major faults lie and notes there are also unmapped faults. The paper discusses how the area not only demonstrates historical significance with regard to earthquake activity, but it is a region of the nation that has recurring earthquakes on a daily basis, though small in scale.

From the Paper:

"There are seven major faults in the San Francisco Bay Area. These faults become active through the "strike slip motion" of the Pacific and North American tectonic plates ("Working"). Research contends that, Although most of the present-day seismicity in Bay Area generally follows the major faults (San Andreas, Hayward-Mission Creek, Concord-Calaveras, and Antioch faults), a significant fraction occurs in the large (8 km) right-step-over region between the Calaveras and Concord faults and along the Mt. Lewis seismic zone. In addition, numerous earthquakes locate in the regions between the major faults and seismic zones and appear to lie on either the minor faults or on unmapped faults ("Bay Area"). Although these major faults have historically played a role in the major earthquakes that have affected the San Francisco Bay Area, scientists now conclude that at any time minor faults could create..."

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