Does the San Andreas fault go through downtown Los Angeles as they show in the miniseries?
The San Andreas fault is located north of the San Gabriel Mountains on its closest approach to downtown Los Angeles, more than 30 miles northeast as the crow flies. This much is a fact, though: the San Andreas fault has been and will likely be the source for the largest earthquakes to affect the San Francisco Bay Area as well as portions of Southern California. As you watch and enjoy “10.5,” keep the above facts (and fictions) in mind. Though an earthquake of such a “magnitude” is not realistic, all Californians need to be aware of and prepared for large earthquakes. Though much of the “science” in the miniseries may seem right compared to what other movies have programmed us to think, reality is suspended much of the time. On a scale of 1 to 100, I’d have to give this movie a rating of only 10.5 on the reality scale. It seems appropriate to borrow a scene from “10.5” in which a mother utters to her daughter, scared after watching the news, “Honey, just forget about what you saw on TV.
