Uncharacteristic Earthquakes on the San Andreas Fault

One model of earthquake recurrence holds that large quakes exhibit regular or characteristic rupture patterns. Combined with a simple picture of how elastic strain accumulates in the faults, this implies that characteristic earthquakes occur at regular intervals. In her Perspective, Grant proposes that recent data from study sites along the San Andreas fault are difficult to understand with this model. The earthquake activity is more irregular and more clustered than the model would suggest.