Those in red were between -105 and 637 feet above sea level, while those in green lives 638 to 1,274 feet above sea level, and those living in an elevated area of more than 1275 feet above sea level were in green which mainly consists of mountainous areas and was given the lowest rank because fewer people would be affected by the earthquake there.Īccording to Christianson's map, most of the larger cities are in the Moderate Impact zone. She classified the areas based on elevation and assigned them colors. The area with the highest population in Los Angeles, which is home to 3887,115 people, while the city with the lowest population is San Mateo with 100,361 people. All in all, she was able to locate 71 cities in California with a population greater than 100,000. In the map presented by Haley Christianson, she only included those areas in California with a population of over 100,000 because they are the most likely to have more people affected by an earthquake compared to small towns. They used distance, elevation, location, and population data and focused on which cities would receive the highest number of casualties. Which Areas in California Are at the Greatest Risk of the Big One?Įxperts have identified the areas in California that are at the greatest risk of getting hit by powerful earthquakes when the Big One happens.

Meanwhile, experts warn that the southern San Andreas fault which slices through Los Angeles County and north of the San Gabriel Mountains could cause powerful earthquakes of up to magnitude 8 and would likely affect populated communities in Southern California.ĪLSO READ: Forget San Andreas Fault Biggest Earthquake Threat Is On This Overlooked Part The fault line runs deep under some of California's most populated areas, such as Daly City, Desert Hot Springs, Frazier Park, Palmdale, Point Reyes, San Bernardino, Wrightwood, Gorman, and Bodega Bay. It divides California into two in which San Diego, Los Angeles, and Big Sur are on the Pacific Plate, whereas Sacramento, San Francisco, and the Sierra Nevada are on the North American Plate. The California Earthquake Authority wrote on their website that the San Andreas Fault line is one of the largest in the world that runs more than 800 miles from the Salton Sea to Cape Mendocino.

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