Are You Living on a Fault Line?

It's hardly news that we're living in an earthquake zone, but now you can see exactly how close the existing or suspected fault lines lie, via your computer.

The California Geological Survey has put its earthquake zone maps online and you can view them by going to the Geological Survey's earthquake zone mapping page and entering your address. When the map comes up, click on the quadrangle in which your address is located. A box will pop up. Inside the box, at the bottom, are links to downloads of the survey maps. Download one of those maps and examine it for the dark solid or dotted lines -- you may need to zoom in to get a good look. (See the example at right.)

Among the earthquake fault zones in the Belmont Shore-Naples area is at least one extending southeast from Signal Hill, through Recreation Park and parallel to East Pacific Coast Highway and Marine Stadium. 

According to The Associated Press, the state's 547 maps were previously available only on paper or CDs.