Question

The San Andreas fault separates the pacific plates from the North America plate. The pacific plate moved northward relative to the North American plate at a rate of 5.7 cm/year. Currently LA and San Francisco are about 470km away from each other, how long will it take for LA and SF to be next to each other? Answer in years

Answer 1

The time, t it will take LA and San Francisco to be next to each other is 8,245,614.04 years which is over 8 million years

Explanation:

The given parameters are;

The speed with which the pacific plate moved northward relative to the North American plate = 5.7 cm/year = 5.7 × 10⁻⁵ km/year

The distance between current LA and San Francisco = 470 km

From the formula for speed, s, we have

Speed = Distance/Time

Therefore, Time, t = Distance/Speed

The time, t it will take LA and San Francisco to be next to each other is given as follows;

t = (Distance between LA and San Francisco)/(The speed with which the pacific plate)

t = (470 km)/(5.7 cm/year) = 470/(5.7 × 10⁽⁻⁵⁾) = 8245614.04 years

Therefore, the time, t it will take LA and San Francisco to be next to each other is 8245614.04 years.