Geophysicist says don't let the San Andreas trailers scare you

The trailer for disaster movie San Andreas is enough to make anyone living in California shake with fear: An enormous earthquake causes unimaginable damage across the state, but an even worse trembler follows it that causes the earth to split open, a tsunami to hit San Francisco, and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson to yell a lot. A feel-good movie, this is not.

Although San Andreas might make you want to hide under your bed for the rest of your life, U.S. Geological Services geophysicist Morgan Page says the movie's creators were playing fast and loose with the facts when they put the flick together. For instance, a scientist (played by Paul Giamatti) says a quake is going to hit that's strong enough to be felt on the East Coast, but Page tells KRON that this is impossible (phew!). Also, a huge earthquake on the San Andreas fault would not cause the Earth to crack open, due to the way the fault slides (double phew!). Finally, there's no chance of a tsunami being triggered that would take out the Golden Gate Bridge. "The San Andreas has slip motion," Page explains. "This isn't the type of motion that would generate a tsunami wave. You need something like subduction where you're lifting large volumes of water, so it didn't appear to be realistic."

Page does see the movie as a helpful wakeup call to people that emergency kits are definite necessities, though. “My hope is that the movie just reminds everyone that California is earthquake country and we all need to be prepared," she said.—Catherine Garcia

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