Ancient lake contributed to past San Andreas fault ruptures

The San Andreas fault, which runs along the western coast of North America and crosses dense population centers like Los Angeles, California, is one of the most-studied faults in North America because of its significant hazard risk. Based on its roughly 150-year recurrence interval for magnitude 7.5 earthquakes and the fact that it's been over 300 years since that's happened, the southern San Andreas fault has long been called "overdue" for such an earthquake. For decades, geologists have been wondering why it has been so long since a major rupture has occurred. Now, some geophysicists think the "earthquake drought" could be partially explained by lakes—or a lack thereof.