Quaternary Downloads Related to the San Francisco Bay Area

With heightened public awareness about earthquake hazards leading up to the 100th anniversary of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is releasing new maps of the San Francisco Bay Area designed to give residents and others a new look at the geologic history and hazards of the region. The "Map of Quaternary-active faults in the San Francisco Bay Region" shows faults that have pushed up mountains and generated earthquakes over the past 2 million years, and are likely to be the source of the next major earthquake in the region. The map also includes answers to common questions about faults. Printed versions of the maps will be available for $7 each from USGS Information Services, 1-888-ASK-USGS.

Map of Quaternary-active faults in the San Francisco Bay Region.
(click to enlarge - new window)

Download Options for the Map of Quaternary-Active Faults in the San Francisco Bay Region:
(some files may require the Adobe Acrobat Reader , or Google Earth™ software )

Download Poster as PDF (high-resolution poster - 63 MB, standard resolution poster - 6.4 MB)

• Full-size image (100 dpi JPG - 13.9 MB)
• Google Earth™ version (KMZ - 1.1 MB)
  Warning: In Google Earth™ it is possible to view the faults at much greater scale than that intended by the authors. This gives an impression of greater accuracy than is actually present in the map. These files are for visualizing the faults at regional scale only, and should not be used in any way for earthquake hazard evaluation. If you can see individual buildings in Google Earth™ (closer than an "eye altitude" of about 10 miles) you have gone beyond the accuracy that is present in the map. Also, Google Earth™ does not enable differentiation of concealed faults. Several Quaternary-active faults in the northeastern part of the region do not break the Earth's surface. These "blind" faults are shown in the original fault map as dotted line.