Puente Hills Fault

The Puente Hills fault is a thrust fault ( fissure ) in 17 km depth directly below the city of Los Angeles in the U.S. state of California. It was only discovered in 1999. The fault runs approximately 25 miles ( 40 km) from the La Puente Hills in the east to Griffith Park to the northwest.

Earthquake risk

Geologists have determined that the chasm at least four times caused a major earthquake in the past 11,000 years. The radiation emanating from the Puente Hills fault risk is still considered high. One reason for this is the profile of the column under a densely populated area. The metropolitan region of Los Angeles was in 2008 with 17.7 million inhabitants tenth among the list of the largest metropolitan areas in the world. The researchers expect that it will come through this chasm still in this century a devastating earthquake. The expected magnitude could reach a thickness of 7.0 to 7.5 on the Richter scale. In this case, the United States Geological Survey (USGS ) is to be expected, according to a property damage of up to 250 billion U.S. dollars and about 3000-18000 dead. The vibrations will be much stronger than those calculated previously by the St. Andreas Fault triggered earthquakes.