San Andreas fault (San Francisco, Santa Rosa, Hayward: homes, businesses, move)

[MAD King]

Hi,

does anyone know how far in width and high the San Andreas fault goes?

Thank you

[GreenGirl]

If I remember correctly, it's about 800 miles long. I'm not sure what you mean by "width" or "high." Fault lines are often but not always visible along the ground, and extend down deep into the Earth. Unless you're wondering where it's at its highest elevation, maybe? That I'm not sure. It does pass through the Santa Cruz mountains, but it may pass through a higher mountain range down south. As for width, the fault is changing the visible landscape above making the location of the fault easy to see, but I'm not sure that is a measure of the width of the fault itself. I bet wikipedia would have whatever you need.

[MAD King]

Thank you for oyur answer. The point is, we want to move to San Francisco, but outsite the fault.

[cynwldkat]

There are faults criss-crossing all over under CA. Big ones and small ones. Each can produce a big earthquake but it may be today or it could be 200+ years from now. Living in CA there are very few places you could live with no faults around. The difference about the San Andreas fault is it's size and it is well-known. That being said it is not always the most dangerous fault. For example look at the Hayward Fault in CA.

[MAD King]

Wow, Jesus, so that is not a good choice to live in CA?

[Joe_Ryder]

Actually the Hayward fault is the one you need to worry about. It hasn't gone off for a long time and is bound to be nasty when it does. It's way overdue.

There is no safe place. If a 9 or 10 quake goes off, we're all toast. The Loma Prieta quake in 1989 was a 7.9 and the epicenter was way down in the Santa Cruz Mountains. It damaged homes and businesses as far north as Santa Rosa (about 60 miles north of SF)

It you worry about earthquakes then the entire West Coast and especially California should be avoided. We get quakes all the time. Some we feel, some we don't even notice.

Just to put it into perspective, you're more likely to die in a traffic accident than an earthquake.

[humboldtrat]

The San Andreas fault does go through the center of the SF peninsula south of San Francisco where the Crystal Spring and San Andreas Reservoirs are and through the southwest corner of San Francisco where Lake Merced is.

[GreenGirl]

It's So. Cal. that has more to worry about with the San Andreas. In the Bay Area, it's the Hayward - Roger's Creek fault that is the biggest worry. To avoid living on top of that hazard, don't move to the East Bay hills, or eastern Sonoma County. But earthquakes happen here, MAD King. Not living right on top of the epicenter doesn't keep you from the experience. I live more than 100 miles from the center of the Loma Prieta quake and it still nearly knocked me off my toilet! (An exaggeration, but it did slosh the water around enough to splash me in the butt.) For the most part, it's not a big deal. It starts, everyone looks around at each other wondering how big it's going to be; it ends, and you go back to your business. The few times it's big enough to do some damage, the serious damage is done to structures built on landfill. I, personally, would not want to live on landfill in the Bay Area. When they're big, it is scary, but your chances of dying or even being injured are really, really small.

[Peninsula gal]

There are earthquake faults all throughout the west, and the biggest one in the US is right in the middle of the country, yes in the mid-west. You can't avoid an earthquake fault in California. if you want to live here you learn to be prepared for the inevitable.

[DMenscha]

good posts from all.

Our County Seat is San Andreas, many of the locals have a license plate frame on their cars;

San Andreas
It's not our fault