Does the USGS expect part of CA to fall into the ocean?

Has anyone else noticed this today? The U.S. Geological Survey Earthquake Hazards Program has drawn a big red line on it's map -- right through part of California. Now we all know that California is falling apart financially but, does the USGS soon expect it to fall apart literally? Why would they be highlighting the Pacific plate / San Andreas fault and no other faults across America?

The focus of this week's FEMA disaster drill is terrorism, so that can't be the reason. Perhaps a clue to the line lies in the USGS website segment "Today's Earthquake Fact":

The oldest rocks on Earth are found on land. Since the ocean floor is being continually regenerated as the continental plates move across the Earth's surface, the oldest rocks on the ocean floor are less than 300 million years. In contrast, the oldest continental rocks are 4,500 million years old.

Whatever the reason for the line, I'm personally very happy to have left California years ago. No more major earthquakes for me, thank you. I'll leave the rest of you Californians to chew on this:

The USGS predicts that California will experience a major earthquake — one equal to or greater than the 1994 Northridge earthquake that was responsible for collapsing parts of Los Angeles' freeways and causing $25 billion in damage — in the next 30 years. And it's more than just a possibility. According to USGS, it’s pretty much certain.

~

UPDATE: I couldn't let this question go unanswered so, I emailed the USGS Earthquake Hazards web team and asked, "Why the red line?" I quickly received the following reply [printed with permission]:

Hello-

We upgraded our US maps this morning to include plate boundaries (bold red lines) for the US map and 10-10 degree maps, and faults (thin red lines) on the 2x2 degree maps.

The text under the maps has been updated to identify the plate boundaries and faults.

The bold red line that runs through California and out into the ocean is the plate boundary between the Pacific Plate and the North American plate (which we call the San Andreas Fault in California). The small area offshore of Oregon and Washington outlined by plate boundaries is the smallest plate in the world, called the Juan de Fuca plate.

There are no other plate boundaries in the US, and there are only a few other places in the world where the plate boundary crosses a continent or landmass (Iceland is one).

There was no significance to why the maps changed today. We've been working on these new maps for quite a while now, and they were finally ready to go public this morning.

- Lisa

--------------------------
Lisa Wald, Geophysicist
Web Team Manager
USGS Earthquake Hazards Program
Golden, CO

Mystery solved. Thank you Ms. Wald -- and thank you EHP team! Keep up the good work.