Using the Santa Cruz Mountains as a natural laboratory, researchers at Stanford University have built a 3-D tectonic model that clarifies for the first time the link between earthquakes and mountain formation along the San Andreas Fault that can be used to improve seismic hazard maps of the Bay Area.
The research, published in Science Advances on February 25, reveals that mountains form in the period between large earthquakes along the San Andreas fault, rather than during the earthquakes themselves.