California

California - A hazard hotspot!

• Sixth largest economy in the world, very popular place to live, beautiful beaches and amazing climate - yet extremely dangerous place to live! The USA's most hazardous state.
• It lies along the San Andrea's fault therefore prone to earthquakes, Pacific plate moves north-westwards past the North American plate > same direction but the Pacific plate moves at 6x the speed.
• The San Andrea's fault is the fracture between them - runs along the Californian coast from LA north to San Francisco. Other fault lines run parallel to major fault - San Francisco built over 2 of them! Faults move regularly!
• Earthquakes in California have high liquefaction risk & a high magnitude risk e.g. World Series Quake in Loma Prieta - 1989 17th October reached 6.9 of the…