DIsaster in waiting -- San Andreas Fault
San Andreas Fault that has produced few disastrous earthquakes is another name of devastation. The parallel fault spells doom for the California region.
San Andreas Fault is a strike-slip fault that divides California into two portions one moving northwestwards another going southwestwards because of plate tectonics taking place inside the earth. Running through the San Andreas Valley extending from San Francisco south to San Diego in California, this geologic fault results in frequent earthquakes triggered by plates sliding past each other. The action places California in one of the most seismically fragile zones of the earth.The endogenetic forces inside the earth trigger the plate movement that causes the western portion of California on the Pacific plate to travel northwest, whereas the eastern side on the North American plate slides past it in southwest direction. This sliding past each other produces tremors. As for now, it was surmised by the geologists that diastrophic movements beneath the area can result in earthquakes, but now with the progress in science recording open cracks, they warn that the area is one of the most vulnerable to frequent and intense tremors that can bring gradation in the area and around.The whole story of plate tectonics is such that the world that once started from PANGEA, will one day again form the same, destroying and building the earth. But, don’t worry that’s not going to happen so early. It will take millions of billions of years for our earth to get back to PANGEA.However, what is more threatening now is an imminent earthquake in the California region.