Free Republic

LOS ANGELES (AP) - A new study concludes that a long stretch of the mighty San Andreas Fault close to highly populated Southern California has usually only had very large earthquakes. The researchers' finding challenge an idea that frequent small temblors slowly relieve accumulating strain on faults and therefore reduce the likelihood of big quakes. Digging trenches at a site on the San Andreas 120 miles northwest of Los Angeles, geologists identified six events and found evidence that about 95 percent of slippage there has occurred during big quakes, with magnitudes ranging from 7.5 to 8, according to the study...