Los Angeles Is Overdue for a More Powerful Earthquake Than We Thought

When the next major earthquake comes to Southern California – and experts even years ago were saying "The Big One" is long overdue – the shaking could be much more powerful than initially predicted. That's especially bad news for Los Angeles, a city ridden with obsolete concrete buildings that could easily collapse during a ground-slamming quake.

Scientists at Stanford and elsewhere have made a new assessment of the region's seismic vulnerability using supercomputers and something mysterious called the "ambient seismic field." This field, to put it simply, is composed of super-weak waves constantly thrumming through the earth due to the motion of the ocean. By tapping into the field, the researchers were able to simulate how a rupture originating from the San Andreas Fault would send vibrations through a natural channel of sediment that leads right to L.A.'s doorstep. There energy would pool, amplify, and likely cause severe destruction.