Bay Area Residents Are Surrounded by Fault Lines, and Seismologists Say California Is Overdue for Another Megaquake

"Basically, the San Andreas fault is locked and loaded and ready to rumble," said Thomas Jordan, director of the Southern California Earthquake Center.

"As a seismologist, of course, the longer we go without a big earthquake, the more nervous I get," Jordan said. "Because I know that, over time, we have to have earthquakes to relieve all of that energy that's being built up along the plate boundary. So the fact we haven't had an earthquake in this region for so long means that our time is getting due."

New calculations on the San Andreas near Los Angeles show major quakes happen there more frequently than previously believed, and the next one could be as big as magnitude 8.

"An earthquake of magnitude eight would affect the entire Los Angeles region, plus other communities along the fault," said Jordan.

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