is not so drastic. A huge strip of land is being slowly sliced off North America along the San Andreas Fault. So far, only Baja California has been sliced off (and that has already taken several million years). Each of the many earthquakes released by the San Andreas is But an infinitesimal step in the slicing process. Eventually, given a few more million years, all of California west of the San Andreas Fault will be a long, narrow island just off the West Coast. Investment in future shoreline property along the San Andreas is not likely to bring much of a return for quite some time.

Despite the deserved attention the San Andreas Fault gets, most faults that cut the crust are rather hum-drum occurrences. The vast majority of faults are now totally inactive; the cuts formed eons ago when the forces working on the crust had different orientations from those of today. Geologic forces are constantly arguing about how to slice the crustal pizza, and new cuts keep being made. Most of the older cuts get forgotten, but frequently a new tension will reuse an older cut if it happens to line up right. Thus, through the ages the pizza has been sliced up many times; but for the most part only the recent cuts relate to current tensions in the Earth's crust.

And so, there are many more inactive faults than active ones. Connecticut, for example, is cut by hundreds of faults of various sizes, almost all of which are completely inactive. No spot in the state is more than five miles from a fault. Most of these faults were created millions and millions of years ago and have long since lapsed into geologic slumber. Their potential for earthquakes is close to nil. They are significant, though, because they often mark the boundary between two contrasting rock types brought in contact by crustal motions long ago. Consequently, faults often mark the boundary between landscape regions. One of the most important in Connecticut is the Eastern Border Fault (a normal fault), which separates the brownstone of the Central Valley from the metamorphic rocks of the Eastern Uplands. Another is the Cameron's Line Fault (a thrust fault), which divides the Northwest Highlands from the rest of the Western Uplands. In eastern Connecticut lies the Lake Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaug Fault, named for a lake in Massachusetts (also called Lake Webster) which lies

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