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Hazards and Disasters

Earthquakes

Will California eventually fall into the ocean

No, it will not. The famous San Andreas Fault, which runs along the western edge of California from the San Francisco Bay Area to Southern California, is known as a transverse fault. This means that the western side of the fault, which includes places like Monterey, Santa Barbara, and Los Angeles, is sliding northward with respect to the rest of the state. In a few million years, the state’s two largest urban areas, San Francisco and Los Angeles, will be right next to each other. The fault is moving at about two centimeters (just under an inch) a year.



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