The San FransiscoBay Area - Week 6

I love San Francisco! There is so much to see and do, not to mention all of the history you can learn about. My family and I took a road trip up the west coast and this by far was our favorite stop. We loved seeing so many different landscapes in a seemingly small area. We explored the bay, played on the beach, went hiking in the mountains, dipped our feet in the ocean and got an amazing calf workout climbing the huge hills that make up the downtown area. While we enjoyed our stay and plan to come back, being there raised a few questions.

First, because San Francisco is in close vicinity to 4 major faults but mainly the San Andres, what are the chances of it being broken away from the rest of the state? I would also be interested to know if this something the locals worry about or not. I can imagine earthquakes are common place for those who call the area home but maybe that would make their concern less as it is the risk you take by living there.

https://prd-wret.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/assets/palladium/production/s3fs-public/styles/full_width/public/thumbnails/image/UCERF-DEMv17.jpg

My next question would be what are the changes of another major earthquake happening in the area are and if those chances are increased or decreased by the growth of the area? Knowing that humans can cause earthquakes and see the large population in the area, I couldn’t help but wonder if we are what will literally break California apart. On a tour of the bay, we learned that the last major earthquake in the area was in 1989, which was the strongest the area had felt since 1906.
  

                                    https://www.britannica.com/event/San-Francisco-earthquake-of-1989

On this same tour I was surprised to learn that the bay area is built on filled land. It caused me to wonder if this should change to better prevent mass destruction in the event of another earthquake. So my final question would be, how do you prepare an earthquake prone area like this to sustain the least damage? This also made me question what the area looked like before the 1906 earthquake and if there was anything they did to protect the area from similar damage sustained then?

While the area is beautiful and one of my favorite to explore, it is scary to think what could happen to it because of its location. Having the answers to these questions would be helpful in preparing the area for another major earthquake or understanding what could happen to the land area sits on if human made quakes began to happen.