San Diego faces critical earthquake danger from fault long believed to be inactive

SAN DIEGO - The conventional thinking has long been that the San Diego region faces less danger from a devastating earthquake than the Los Angeles or San Francisco areas.

But a new landmark study shows just how a fault running through the heart of San Diego poses a much more serious threat than believed a generation ago.

Researchers examined the effects of the Rose Canyon fault producing a plausible magnitude 6.9 earthquake, threatening the civic and financial center of California's second largest city and the nation's fourth biggest naval base, causing liquefaction and landslides.

Such a quake could damage 120,000 of San Diego County's 700,000 structures and causing $38 billion in economic losses from just building and infrastructure damage and $5.2 billion in lost income from business interruptions, according to a new report released Wednesday by the Earthquake