California has a large fault that is well known, the San Andreas Fault. Many are concerned about it since it could be a source of a potential deadly earthquake in the future. However, scientists have found a new fault in Southern California that could be a cause of an earthquake in the future.
According to Science Daily, this new fault is a significant one and lies at the eastern edge of the Salton Sea. The newly-discovered fault is the Salton Trough Fault and is parallel to the San Andreas Fault. As it is, the San Andreas Fault could already be a source of an earthquake. The Salton Trough Fault could add even more concerns of an earthquake.
To map the Salton Trough Fault scientists used a variety of devices, as Phys Org reports. These instruments include multi-channel seismic data, ocean-bottom seismometers and light detection and ranging or LIDAR.
Scientists will have to find out how the Salton Trough Fault interacts with the San Andreas Fault. It has been noted that the southern portion of the San Andreas Fault has not had any major seismic activity in 300 years. Scientists now want to find out whether the Salton Trough Fault might be taking some of the pressure off from the San Andreas Fault.
Determining that would be difficult, though, as seismologists from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography from the University of California San Diego and the Nevada Seismological Laboratory from the University of Nevada, Reno have found out out.
"The location of the fault in the eastern Salton Sea has made imaging it difficult and there is no associated small seismic events, which is why the fault was not detected earlier," Scripps geologist Neal Driscoll, lead principal investigator and co-author of the study said.
"Without having a record of past earthquakes from this new fault, it's really difficult to determine whether this fault interacts with the southern San Andreas Fault at depth or in time," added Nevada State seismologist Graham Kent, co-author of the study. Scientists will have to find out how the Salton Sea Fault interacts with the San Andreas Fault.
With the southern San Andreas Fault not having seen movement for 300 years, it is important to find out more about the Salton Trough Fault as the potential for a deadly earthquake is present.
