00:00in one of the most remarkable geological discoveries in years.
00:03Scientists have identified a mysterious mechanism in the Earth's crust
00:07that acts as a natural brake,
00:10stopping potentially catastrophic earthquakes
00:12before they can grow into megaquakes.
00:15The discovery emerged from studying an underwater fault near Ecuador
00:18that has been producing nearly identical magnitude 6 earthquakes
00:22every five to six years for decades.
00:25Baffling scientists,
00:27because the fault never seemed to rupture
00:29into the massive events its energy buildup would predict,
00:32researchers now believe the fault contains structural features
00:36that systematically limit rupture propagation,
00:39essentially functioning as a natural emergency brake on the fault line.
00:43The implications for earthquake science
00:45and for cities built along active fault systems are enormous.
00:49If scientists can identify and map these brake mechanisms
00:53across major fault systems worldwide,
00:56including the San Andreas Fault in California,
00:58the Cascadia subduction zone in the Pacific Northwest
01:02and faults beneath Seattle and Los Angeles,
01:05it could fundamentally change how we assess earthquake risk
01:09and design infrastructure in those cities.
01:11The Earth's most dangerous faults may have hidden safety features.
01:16Scientists are now racing to find them.
01:18the Earth's most dangerous what we often seem to speak for in effect during the це
01:18the Earth are trained to discover what we know when people have hours
01:18and수�usstomy has done self-madست.
01:18You
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