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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Gabrielle Canon

US west coast faults could trigger catastrophic back-to-back earthquakes, study finds

Officer leans over massive crack in road with two crumpled cars in it.
A California highway patrol officer on the Bay Bridge after the Loma Prieta earthquake in San Francisco, California, on 17 October 1989, which killed 63 people, injured almost 3,800 and caused roughly $10bn in damage. Photograph: George Nikitin/AP

Warnings about the looming threat of “the big one” – a catastrophic earthquake that could devastate cities – have stoked fears across the US west coast for decades. But according to a new study, a high-magnitude earthquake in the Pacific north-west could set off a secondary one on California’s San Andreas fault, causing an unrivaled catastrophe.

“The bigger one” would have the potential to wreak havoc up and down the coast at once, researchers say.

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