Since we're on the topic of horrific earthquakes, the United States Geological Survey posted a USGS News Release on 8 December that should raise the hair on the back of your neck should you be located in the area in question:
Under certain very rare circumstances, a large earthquake on the northern San Jacinto fault near Riverside and San Bernardino could trigger a cascading rupture of the Sierra Madre-Cucamonga fault system, potentially causing a magnitude 7.5-7.8 earthquake on the edge of the Los Angeles metropolitan region. The faults involved are close to the densely populated Los Angeles, Riverside, and San Bernardino areas, and the shaking and damage from such an event could possibly exceed even those of the "Big One" on the San Andreas fault.Here in San Diego we'd not get the hammer, but the secondary effects could be as ugly as a bad earthquake on their own. Thank goodness I live on non-flooding bedrock.While such an event is less likely than a similar sized event on the San Andreas, said Anderson, it is among the worst-case scenario earthquakes for southern California, and one that is not currently addressed in seismic hazard planning scenarios.
