California

NASA Says Southern California and Mexico Fault Lines Are Connected

The NASA study says the entire fault is about 217 miles long.

A NASA study recently revealed that a part of a known fault is related to larger faults in Mexico and Southern California.

The study, which NASA worked on for about three years, revealed that the southern end of the Elsinore Fault is linked to the northern end of the Laguna Salada Fault system, north of the Mexican border. The segment that unites both faults is known as Ocotillo. 

"The Ocotillo section was the site of a 5.7-magnitude aftershock that ruptured into a 5-mile-long fault buried in the California desert two months after the 2010 El Mayor-Cucapah earthquake in Baja California, Mexico," according to NASA.

The NASA study says the entire fault is about 217 miles long.

The magnitude 7.2 earthquake caused severe damage in the Mexican city of Mexicali and was felt throughout Southern California. This quake and its aftershocks caused the movement of dozens of faults in the region, including many previously unidentified.

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