Whose fault is it? Is it always Fair to Blame the San Andreas?

Before I go much further, I want to stress how serious earthquakes are. It's not really a laughing matter if you live as I do in earthquake country. Millions of people have died from earthquakes in the last century or two, and they are still recovering bodies in Venezuela from the quake last June (6,500 dead so far with tens of thousands still missing).San Francisco after the 1906 earthquakeStill, it is important to be reminded about the threat that we in California live under. Quakes happen regularly in this state, and sometimes they are catastrophic. It's best to know the threat and to be ready for the day when the BIG ONES hit.And we all know who to blame when that day comes, right? It's the San Andreas's fault...Well, let's see if that is true...how well do we know our most famous fault?Trace of the San Andreas fault on the San Francisco Peninsula. San Andreas Lake is in the foreground.The fault was discovered and named in 1895 by Andrew Lawson, a professor at UC Berkeley. He was…