[djf]

Actually, the Baja peninsula will continue to get longer. California will split down the middle, with everything west of the central valley being part of the (longer) Baja.

My personal thoughts about the greatest quake window this year is:

Very near the time of the transit of Venus, the first one in about 150 yrs., occurring June 8th.

[John H K]

Err, well, the Gulf of California will get longer to the North, with eventually the sliver west of the San Andreas splitting off with a narrow gulf between it and the rest of California, and then the sliver takes off north (including the current Baja as the south end.)

HOWEVER, it seems quite possible for this "sliver" to either be joined by ANOTHER much larger area breaking off separately, or the sliver "widening" before it separates, to the EAST side of the Sierra Nevada.

You'll notice the "Great Restraining Bend" of the San Andreas north of LA. It changes from running SE-NW to running E-W, then SE-NW again (and that bend has helped form the high mountains north of Los Angeles.)

There's clear evidence that the main Pacific Plate/North American plate fault break may already be re-routing itself to the East of the current San Andreas up through the Mojave. And eventually to the East of the Sierra Nevada.

Actually the issue of where the North American Plate ends and the Pacific Plate ends is tricky; it isn't a clear boundary on the San Andreas.

Actually part of the NW motion of the Pacific Plate extends all the way East to the Wasatch Mountains in Utah, so the "boundary" between the two plates actually extends that far East.....in Nevada much of it is a "stretching" motion as Nevada gets wider and pulls to the NW some.