Something Alarming Is Building Beneath Southern California, Scientists Warn

For more than 160 years, sections of Southern California’s most powerful fault network have remained without a major rupture. A new model suggests that the quiet interval has allowed tectonic stress to reach unusually high levels.

The research focuses on the San Andreas and San Jacinto fault systems and the critical junction between them at Cajon Pass. Scientists stress that the findings do not predict when the next major earthquake will occur.