California Primed for the Big One and the State’s Not Ready

California should mercifully split off from the rest of the U.S. politically, but the possibility of such a geological reality is no laughing matter.
Although California wouldn’t exactly break off into the ocean, as some hyperbolic predictions suggest, a new study published in Frontiers in Earth Science is warning that the San Andreas Fault is in imminent danger of experiencing a strong earthquake, KABC-TV reported.
Researchers studied the pattern of earth movement and indicators, such as rock stress leading up to the last major earthquake in Monterey County’s Parkfield area in 2004, and found a parallel to what they’re picking up now.

According to the California Earthquake Authority, seismic activity is not surprising, as the Golden State experiences some 100 earthquakes per day without incident.
However, the threat comes from a large quake near a population center, which is a possibility, considering most residents live within 30 miles of one of the 15,700 known faults in the sta …