The nature of the San Andres fault system movement means that Los Angeles will one day be next to San Francisco. However, it doesn't allow a massive fall or westerly movement necessary for California to fall into the ocean. The tectonic plates of the Pacific and North America slide one above the other along the San Andres fault, about two inches each year. Los Angeles, which is located on the edge of the Pacific Plate, moves slowly to the north, at about the same speed as nail growth.
Map of the tectonic plates of the world. In the past, there have been major earthquakes in the south of San Andrés. Plate tectonics hasn't stopped suddenly; it continues to push Los Angeles toward San Francisco at the same rate as nails grow, approximately 1.5 inches each year. Although the two cities are in the same state and on the same continent, they are located on different tectonic plates.
Los Angeles is located on the Pacific plate, the largest of the world's tectonic plates, which extends from California to Japan, from the Aleutian Arc of Alaska to New Zealand. San Francisco is located on the North American plate, which extends east to the Mid-Atlantic mountain range and Iceland. The boundary between them is the San Andrés fault. This is where the two plates are slowly dragged one over the other; their movement cannot be stopped any longer than we could turn off the sun.
Someday, in the distant future, the movement of the Pacific plate along the San Andres Fault will eventually lead Los Angeles and east of San Francisco to come together and be neighbors. Alternatively, FlixBus-US operates a bus from San Francisco to downtown Los Angeles once a day, and the journey takes 8h 5 m. If current rates of movement are maintained, Los Angeles will be next to San Francisco in approximately 20 million years.
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