Earths San Andreas Fault
Explanation:
The Earth's surface is broken.
Cracks in the Earth's crust known as
faults can run for hundreds of kilometers.
These faults are
frequently the sites of
major
earthquakes as the
tectonic plates that cover the surface of the Earth shift.
Pictured above is San Andreas Fault in
California,
one of the longest and most active
faults.
Visible as the linear feature to the right of the mountains,
San Andreas Fault reaches 15 kilometers deep
and is about 20 million years old.
The
above exaggerated-height image
was created by combining radar deployed by the
Space Shuttle Endeavor in
February with a true-color
Landsat picture.
Along
San Andreas Fault, the titanic
Pacific Plate is
shifting relative to the huge
North American Plate by an average of a few centimeters per year.
At that rate, in a few million years, the
Earth's surface will look
quite different than it does today.
Authors & editors:
Robert Nemiroff
(MTU) &
Jerry Bonnell
(USRA)
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings,
and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris.
Specific
rights apply.
A service of:
LHEA at
NASA /
GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
