Welcome to CoreFacts, where we're always short on time and
big on science. I'm Steve Sobieszczyk. Oh...I really like today's question.
Will California
eventually fall off into the ocean?
Although it's a familiar plot device of criminal masterminds
to both superheroes and super-agents, the answer is no. The San Andreas Fault
System, for example, which crosses California
from the Salton Sea in the south to Cape Mendocino
in the north, is the boundary between the Pacific Plate and North American
Plate. The Pacific Plate is moving in a northwest direction with respect to the
North American Plate at approximately 46 millimeters per year, about the rate
your fingernails grow. The strike-slip earthquakes on the San
Andreas Fault are a result of this plate motion. The plates are
moving horizontally past one another, so California will not fall into the
ocean but instead L.A. will one day mosey on passed San Francisco one day.
And now you know. Join us every weekday for a new CoreFact.
If you have a question you think we should answer on the air, email it to us at
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