California is NOT going to fall in the ocean

created by liha

(place) by liha (5.4 mon) (print) ? (I like it!) 4 C!s Mon Nov 06 2000 at 18:15:10

I teach a geology lab at my university and I cannot tell you how many people still believe that California is going to fall and sink into the ocean. This is incorrect. I believe this falsehood that has somehow crept into unsuspecting minds is from the first Superman movie. In Superman, evil Lex Luthor drops a nuclear bomb on the San Andreas fault so the property he has purchased in California's eastern desert will become ocean front property.

But this will not happen. The western half of California will eventually break off but it's not going to sink. The San Andreas fault is a strike-slip fault meaning it is experiencing shearing forces. The southern part of California which is part of the Pacific Plate will shear off the North American plate (over a very long period of time) . And San Francisco and the areas south will slowly travel northward. No sinking will occur.

If you cannot picture this, look at a map of Baja California. This peninsula was once attached to continental Mexico and has since sheared off.

For more information, see plate tectonics.

printable version
chaos

Plate tectonics	San Andreas fault	Bicyclists who ride the wrong way on a one-way street	Eureka
Lex Luthor	Earthquake prediction	strike-slip fault	Baja California Sur
Superman	Catastrophism	enthalpy	earthquake lights
November 6, 2000	Ænema	Retreat from Kabul	Aenima
Graduated licensing	New Madrid Fault	California	Arizona Bay
A long way down reverses eventually	fortunate	The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants	Mumbai

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