California fault lines and earthquake probabilities

We have in the past looked at the some of the California fault lines where earth quakes are likely to occur.

A recent story in the news is that a recent report by the Working Group on California Earthquake Probabilities (WGCEP) shows that the probability of an 8.0 magnitude earthquake happening in the next 30 years in the California region is higher than previously thought.

The interesting part from a Google Earth perspective is that WGCEP has provided a KML file showing the fault lines in the California region and the associated probability of a large earthquake happening in the next 30 years. You can download the KML here.

Google Earth has an Earthquakes layer in the Gallery, provided by the US Geological Society (USGS) which shows historical large earthquakes globally. In addition, the USGS provides various KMLs that show all the recent earthquakes over a magnitude of 1.0. You can find them here.

If you want a global view of the tectonic plates that cause the fault lines, we recommend the map from MyReadingMapped that we reviewed here.

We have also looked at the aftermaths of earthquakes, such as the August 2014 Napa Earthquake.