Are there any fault lines in northern California?

Question

I'm thinking of moving to California next year and am an east coaster. Thus, I am more scared of earthquakes than anything because I am not familiar with them at all, I'm less scared of tornadoes. Anyways, I am doing research on fault lines to try and steer as far away from them as I can. So far, maps I've found don't have any fault lines in northern California, but I thought they were literally everywhere in California.

So, any advice on areas far away from fault lines would be so appreciated! Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

It'll probably be helpful to you in your search if you specify that you're looking for active faults.  There are faults everywhere but there might not be movement along them and so won't produce earthquakes.  If you ask someone for a map of the faults in northern california, you'll probably get a map with a lot of faults on it! But the vast majority of those would be ones you didn't need to worry about.

Answer 2

All of California is susceptible to earthquakes -- it's just that the most active and potentially most dangerous area is in Southern California along the San Andreas fault.

See the attached link to the USGS seismicity map for California and you can see that earthquakes occur just about everywhere in California -- and that map is only for those since 1990.

The link to the seisimic hazards map shows the likelihood of a major earthquake in a specific area of California.  As you can see on that map, the area least likely to have an earthquake is Central California -- to the east of Sacramento.

--- added comment:  You are much more likely to die in an auto accident or be struck by lightning than you are to die in an earthquake - even in California!