The Pacific plate slides past the North American plate at about 5 centimeters a year, and the last southern California slip was in 1857. If the next slip came in 2107 and released all the stored strain, how far would the ground move?

1. A rate of 5 centimeters per year is 500 centimeters per century. 2. That is 5 meters of motion in every century. 3. From 1857 to 2107 is 250 years, which is 2.5 centuries. 4. Multiplying gives 5 meters per century times 2.5 centuries. 5. The product is 12.5 meters of slippage. 6. The answer of 5.0 meters counts only a single century and drops the rest of the wait. 7. The answer of 8.0 meters belongs to a slip in 2017, which is 1.6 centuries after 1857. 8. The answer of 25.0 meters comes from doubling the rate to 10 meters per century. _Source: OpenStax Astronomy (CC BY 4.0), section 8.2 Earth’s Crust_