Housing loss upped.Housing loss upped A magnitude 8 earthquake on the San Andreas fault San Andreas fault, great fracture (see fault) of the earth's crust in California. It is the principal fault of an intricate network of faults extending more than 600 mi (965 km) from NW California to the Gulf of California. The San Andreas fault, a strike-slip fault, also extends vertically at least 20 mi (30 km) into the earth. insouthern California--considered a distinct possibility--would leave 250,000 to 400,000 homes uninhabitable, according to Northridge, Calif.-based Rachel M. Gulliver, an earthquake-hazard consultant. The number represents an increase over her 1980 estimate of 135,000 houses made uninhabitable by structural failure or loss of utilities, calculated while she was with the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The initial estimate was based on the assumption that areas where the water table water table, the top zone of soil and rock in which all voids are saturated with water. The level of the water table varies with topography and climate. is low--such as the urbanized valleys in and around Los Angeles--would suffer less shaking than areas with high water tables. But other scientists' measurements of seismic events led Gulliver to up the estimated intensity of an earthquake wave in areas with a low water table. |
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