Rose Canyon Fault
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The Rose Canyon Fault is a right-lateral
strike-slip In geology, a fault is a planar fracture or discontinuity in a volume of rock across which there has been significant displacement as a result of rock-mass movements. Large faults within Earth's crust result from the action of plate tectonic ...
fault running in a north-south direction through
San Diego County San Diego County (), officially the County of San Diego, is a county in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 3,298,634, making it California's second-most populous county and the fi ...
, California.Hart, E.W., Bryant, W.A., Wills, C.J., Treiman, J.A., and Kahle, J.E.
"Summary Report: Fault Evaluation Program, 1987–1988, Southwestern Basin and Range Region and Supplemental Areas."
Department of Conservation, Division of Mines and Geology Open-File Report, 1989. Retrieved March 2, 2010.


Extent

The Rose Canyon Fault is about in length. It starts in the
Mission Valley Mission Valley is a wide river valley trending east–west in San Diego, California, United States, through which the San Diego River flows to the Pacific Ocean. For planning purposes the city of San Diego divides it into two neighborhoods: Missi ...
area and heads past
Mt. Soledad Mount Soledad, also known as Soledad Mountain, is a prominent landmark in the city of San Diego, California, United States. The mountaintop is the site of the Mount Soledad Cross, the subject of a 25-year controversy over the involvement of reli ...
and
La Jolla La Jolla ( , ) is a hilly, seaside neighborhood within the city of San Diego, California, United States, occupying of curving coastline along the Pacific Ocean. The population reported in the 2010 census was 46,781. La Jolla is surrounded on ...
into the Pacific Ocean where it joins other faults such as the Oceanside Fault.Monroe, Robert
"Finding Faults"
2002. Retrieved March 2, 2010.


Current state

Not much is known about the Rose Canyon fault, though its slip-rate is thought to be 1.1 mm/year. The Rose Canyon Fault has sustained at least one late Holocene rupture, with the date of the earthquake estimated to be after AD 1450 and most likely prior to construction of the San Diego Mission in 1769, as a large historical Rose Canyon earthquake would likely have destroyed that mission.Southern California Edison, Paleoseismic Assessment of the Late Holocene Rupture History of the Rose Canyon Fault in San Diego
, December 2012.
The last earthquake believed to have occurred on the fault occurring on May 27, 1862, which was around magnitude 6; however, its association with the Rose Canyon Fault is debatable. The Rose Canyon Fault has garnered more attention because it runs through such highly populated areas and was formerly thought not to be much of a threat. Some
geophysicists Geophysics () is a subject of natural science concerned with the physical processes and physical properties of the Earth and its surrounding space environment, and the use of quantitative methods for their analysis. The term ''geophysics'' so ...
, such as
Scripps Institution of Oceanography The Scripps Institution of Oceanography (sometimes referred to as SIO, Scripps Oceanography, or Scripps) in San Diego, California, US founded in 1903, is one of the oldest and largest centers for oceanography, ocean and Earth science research ...
researcher Jeff Babcock, have hypothesized that a concentrated
earthquake An earthquake (also known as a quake, tremor or temblor) is the shaking of the surface of the Earth resulting from a sudden release of energy in the Earth's lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, from ...
involving the Rose Canyon, Oceanside, and
Newport–Inglewood fault The Newport–Inglewood Fault is a right-lateral strike-slip fault in Southern California. The fault extends for from Culver City southeast through Inglewood and other coastal communities to Newport Beach at which point the fault extends east ...
s could result in an earthquake up to magnitude 7.6 on the
moment magnitude scale The moment magnitude scale (MMS; denoted explicitly with or Mw, and generally implied with use of a single M for magnitude) is a measure of an earthquake's magnitude ("size" or strength) based on its seismic moment. It was defined in a 1979 pape ...
. A 2017 study concluded that, together, the Newport–Inglewood Fault and Rose Canyon Fault could produce an earthquake of 7.3 or 7.4 magnitude.


References

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Further reading

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External links


Faults and Earthquakes in San Diego County
San Diego Natural History Museum The San Diego Natural History Museum is a museum located in Balboa Park in San Diego, California. It was founded in 1874 as the San Diego Society of Natural History. It is the second oldest scientific institution west of the Mississippi and th ...
{{Faults Seismic faults of California Geology of San Diego County, California La Jolla, San Diego Mission Valley, San Diego