The LA Times has put together an amazing video that lets viewers fly over the length of the Hollywood Fault to see how the potential (and much-contested) fault criss-crosses through neighborhoods and near well-known landmarks, including hotels, schools, and major streets. The colorful video uses three hues to reflect the type of evidence that geologists used to determine fault line locations. (These are, after all, just the best guesses about where these lines could be.) Red lines show where physical evidence (soil conditions, for example) suggests faulting, or where geologists have projected the fault might be by using other “better-located” fault traces nearby; red lines also indicate the most certainty about the line’s location.That certainty decreases with orange lines and drops again with yellow, the latter meaning that, while it is “strongly believed” there is an existing fault there, “precise surface location is not possible to know.” That’s not scary at all! (State law prohibits building too close to faults; right now the controversial Millennium Hollywood double-tower project is trying to figure out precisely if the fault runs under its site.)
Jump to preset landmarks and locations via a drop down menu at the top or images at the bottom of the screen. These lines may change in time; the preliminary map of the Hollywood Fault came out at the beginning of the year, but the official, final map isn’t due until the year’s end.