California's most famous luxury shopping district could be at risk for a huge earthquake
- A new map from the California Geological Survey shows a fault that runs directly below Rodeo Drive, one of the priciest shopping areas in California.
- The fault could produce an earthquake up to 7 on the Richter scale, which could severely damage the pricey real estate in the area.
One of California's fanciest shopping districts could be at risk for a huge earthquake.
According to new data from the California Geological Survey, the Santa Monica fault runs directly below Rodeo Drive, the luxury shopping epicenter of Beverly Hills. The area hosts a number of luxury outlets, including Louis Vuitton, Battaglia, and Gucci.
The fault runs parallel to the Santa Monica boulevards through Beverly Hills' central business district. According to experts, the fault could produce a quake up to 7 on the Richter scale, which would prove disastrous for many of the buildings in the area. The last earthquake to occur on the fault was between 1,000 to 3,000 years ago, according to The Los Angeles Times.
The area has some of the most expensive real estate in the US. Developers are supposed to take active fault lines into account when building up a property, but the faultline hadn't previously been mapped under the area.
"The current map has significant revisions from the earlier draft map that the city had commented on and so we are currently in the process of evaluating the changes," Therese Kosterman, a spokeswoman for Beverly Hills told The LA Times.
Read the rest of the story from The LA Times.