University of Hawaii study shows that stress on California’s southern San Andreas and San Jacinto faults has risen to the highest levels in a millennium, placing the region in a critically loaded state and heightening the risk of a combined rupture at Cajon Pass.

   USC Dornsife
   Supershear earthquakes, moving faster than seismic waves, could cause catastrophic shaking across California. USC researchers warn that many faults capable of magnitude 7 quakes might produce these explosive ruptures. Current construction standards don’t account for their directional force. Stronger monitoring and building codes are urgently needed.

A California Geological Survey map released earlier this year depicts just how intense and damaging the shaking from future earthquakes will be across the state, revealing where the threat is most critical — and reminding that people can prepare.

When the tectonic subduction zone beneath the Pacific Northwest shifts, it does so violently. A magnitude 9+ earthquake in this region would unleash powerful ground shaking, tsunamis, and landslides, each adding to the devastation.

Now, new research published in Geosphere suggests that such a massive quake—the “really big one”—could also trigger a significant earthquake in California.

“It’s kind of hard to exaggerate what a M9 earthquake would be like in the Pacific Northwest,” says Dr. Chris Goldfinger, a paleoseismologist at Oregon State University and lead author of the new study. “And so the possibility that a San Andreas earthquake would follow, it’s movie territory.”

The 1857 Fort Tejon earthquake measured magnitude 7.9, ruptured about 225 miles of the San Andreas Fault, and killed two people.

A 2026 University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa study found stress on the southern San Andreas and San Jacinto fault systems at the highest levels recorded in the past 1,000 years.

UCLA professor Jonathan Stewart says San Andreas faults typically rupture every ~150 years, yet more than 300 years have passed since the last large rupture south of the 1857 event.

The study’s physics‑based simulation indicates the Cajon Pass junction could enable a joint rupture of the two faults, which would be significantly more damaging than a single‑fault earthquake.

Researchers warn that a major quake could rupture most major aqueducts supplying water to Southern California, causing widespread water‑service disruptions.


Wonder where Newsom and Pelosi will be then ?

  (Can't say the SKY is falling)