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Science 5 March 1999:
Vol. 283. no. 5407, pp. 1516 - 1518
DOI: 10.1126/science.283.5407.1516
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Reports

An Elusive Blind-Thrust Fault Beneath Metropolitan Los Angeles

John H. Shaw, 1* and Peter M. Shearer 2

Seismic reflection profiles, petroleum wells, and relocated earthquakes reveal the presence of an active blind-thrust fault beneath metropolitan Los Angeles. A segment of this fault likely caused the 1987 Whittier Narrows (magnitude 6.0) earthquake. Mapped sizes of other fault segments suggest that the system is capable of much larger (magnitude 6.5 to 7) and more destructive earthquakes.

1 Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.
2 Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics, Scripps Institute of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093-0225, USA.
*   To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: shaw{at}eps.harvard.edu

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