Earthquake: Bay Area earthquake guide: Where could the big one hit?

What Bay Area residents dread is the next proverbial big one, the next major regional earthquake that seismologists say will statistically strike by the year 2043.

To understand the risks, every Bay Area resident should have at least a working layperson’s understanding of what’s going on just under the surface of our thriving but seismically imperiled communities.

A dizzying network of faults laces the Bay Area, some of them so obscure that they don’t have names.

The fault zone is part of the larger San Andreas fault system, which also includes many of the other major Bay Area faults on this list.

The Maacama is part of the San Andreas system and has been called its “sister fault”—hopefully, that remains an estranged relationship.