Scientific Computer Applications, Inc. (SCAI), of Tulsa, Oklahoma, released a San Andreas Fault map that was created by their contour map software product, Mapping Contouring System (MCS).
MCS is the first contour maps software package to generate a San Andreas Fault map contour, using data supplied by the USGS.
The San Andreas Fault map was produced with SCAI's Mapping Contouring Software (MCS), a petroleum reservoir modeling software package used in the petroleum Industry by petroleum engineers, reservoir engineers, geophysicists, and geologists.
The inspiration for the contour mapping software study was a recent report by the U.S. Geological Survey in Menlo Park,Calif., by geophysicist Gary Fuis and his colleagues, and published in the February 2012 Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America.
Whereas the previous perception was that the San Andreas Fault map is nearly vertical, Fuis and his team found that the fault is significantly non vertical in some areas. In fact, the fault appears to be propeller shaped, dipping to the northwest between Bakersfield and Santa Maria, and dipping to the northeast between Riverside and Twentynine Palms. Fuis found that the propeller shape has implications for earthquake damage, i.e., the distance from the fault to a city is less, and there is more damage, if the city is in the hanging wall of the fault, i.e., above the fault.
Scientific Computer Applications MCS contour map software contours the San Andreas Fault map down to-20,000 meters (-65,616 ft or approximately 12 miles). A contour map is quantitative map, which allows one to know the location know the depth. A 3D perspective view is only qualitative and does not indicate the depth at any location.