4.4 quake a wake-up call on L.A.'s unknown faults

[flamingdem]

Last edited Tue Mar 18, 2014, 04:58 PM - Edit history (1)

http://www.latimes.com/local/la-me-0318-earthquake-los-angeles-20140318,0,300057.story#axzz2wKmYSkwr

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They are not as familiar as the freeways, but Southern California's major faults — such as the San Andreas, Newport-Inglewood and San Fernando — have become familiar markers on the local landscape.
But Monday's 4.4 earthquake in Encino is a reminder that the seismic danger extends well beyond those fault lines. The quake, which caused no damage but was the largest in the Los Angeles area in four years, erupted on a little-noticed fault deep under the Santa Monica Mountains.

The temblor surprised seismologists because it was the strongest to hit directly under the Santa Monica Mountains in the 80 years "since we started recording earthquakes in Southern California," Caltech seismologist Egill Hauksson said. Until now, experts recorded only magnitude 1 to 3 quakes there.
Monday's 6:25 a.m. temblor showed that for all that is understood about quakes, much remains unknown. Southern California's most destructive earthquakes in the last generation — the 5.9 Whittier Narrows in 1987 and the 6.7 Northridge in 1994 — occurred on faults unknown to scientists before the shaking began.


http://www.latimes.com/local/la-me-0318-earthquake-los-angeles-20140318,0,300057.story#ixzz2wKq4xx00

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. Good article. n/t