Hayward Fault Under Oakland More Dangerous Than San Andreas

The Hayward fault under Oakland is more dangerous than the well-known San Andreas fault in Southern California, according to a new study that says it has the potential to kill at least 800 people and injure 18,000 more, The Los Angeles Times reported.

While the San Andreas fault that triggered the great 1906 San Francisco earthquake has become ingrained in California culture, new research indicates the Hayward fault, a 52-mile geologic crack centered below Oakland and running through the East Bay, could cause greater havoc, per the Times.

The new report by the U.S. Geological Survey said a Hayward fault earthquake could cause fires that could burn roughly 50,000 homes, while 2,500 people could end up trapped in fallen buildings, and 22,000 could be stuck in broken elevators, SFGate.com reported.

The study, being released Wednesday afternoon at events in Fremont and Berkeley, imagined a magnitude 7.0 earthquake along the fault line that stretches from San Pablo Bay in the north, to just east of San Jose in the south.

"This fault is what we sort of call a tectonic time bomb," said U.S. Geological Survey earthquake geologist emeritus David Schwartz. "It's just waiting to go off."

Schwartz told the Times that two million of the seven million people who live in the region are currently on top of the Hayward fault.

The Times said some action has been taken in reaction to the Hayward fault. Old city halls in Hayward and Fremont have been abandoned and seating at the University of California Memorial Stadium in Berkeley was rebuilt so it would move six feet northwest in an earthquake scenario.

The University of California Berkeley Seismology Lab said the Hayward fault has a 31.7 percent chance of rupturing in a 6.7 magnitude earthquake or greater in the next 26 years. The Bay Area has a 63 percent chance of having at least a magnitude 6.7 earthquake in the same time period.

Ken Hudnut, science adviser for risk reduction at the U.S. Geological Survey and co-author of the new report, told SFGate.com that since the Hayward fault is "heavily urbanized," more people are simply in harm's way.

"This one would produce stronger shaking through a much larger part of the San Francisco Bay Area," Hudnut told SFGate.com "What we’re trying to convey here is that people should be ready."

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