Scientists Fear 7.3 Earthquake on Combined Rodgers Creek-Hayward Faults

Photo: The collapsed Cypress Structure freeway in Oakland produced the largest number of fatalities in the Loma Prieta earthquake. Credit: WikiMedia

Living in the Bay, concerns about earthquakes are ever-present.

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Those fears are magnified by new information that the Hayward and Rodgers Creek faults may join under San Pablo Bay.

“We now have direct evidence that the faults come closer together in the bay and may be directly connected,” US Geological geophysicist Janet Watt told KPIX. “It would be devastating for an earthquake to rupture at both those faults — it’d be a very strong earthquake.”

How devastating? Try a magnitude of 7.3. The deadly 1989 Loma Prieta quake was just 6.9 and killed 63, injured more than 3,700, and caused incredible devastation from the partial collapse of the Bay Bridge to the pancaking of the Cypress Structure freeway.

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The proximity of the two faults beneath the bay heighten the chance of a catastrophic quake. “If these two faults are connected then that means it would be easier for an earthquake to rupture from the Hayward to Rodgers or vice versa,” says Watt. More scientific study is planned.

The Hayward Fault runs from San Pablo to Alum Rock, while the Rodgers Creek Fault runs from San Pablo Bay to Healdsburg.

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