re: Now Closed: Everything you ever wanted to know about EARTHQUAKES

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why don't we have earthquakes in south la?

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For a couple of reasons. One, stresses are relaxed. Everyone's heard of the New Madrid fault running through the US near Missouri (this is actually related to the formation of the Mississippi River valley...but I digress...until maybe later in the thread). So that fault recently had activity (recent in long arse Earth time). And the stresses are relaxed. Also, the closer fault, Baton Rouge fault has been relaxed because those stresses were removed due to an earthquake, relatively recently.

I'll throw pics up when I can of this.

PICS:


The gray area is the failed arm of that triple junction (3 different tectonic plates)...and it's where the Mississippi River runs.


The Baton Rouge fault marks where a huge piece of rock is separate from the mroe stable craton of the US.