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A new map of the fault lines underneath Hollywood has revealed the major landmarks at risk if an earthquake hits Los Angeles.

The new maps, the first issued by the California Geological Survey in almost 20 years, reveal a new path for a major fault line in the area.

Hotels, schools and even a church are now right on the fault line, it reveals - with much of the area's Sunset Strip at risk.

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The new Hollywood fault line: The buildings now affected by the zone (shown in green) include landmarks such as the Capitol Records tower in Hollywood, the Mondrian, Chateau Marmont and Standard hotels in West Hollywood, elementary and high schools and the Church of Scientology Celebrity Center

WHERE IS IT?

The Hollywood Fault is within the central portion of the Santa Monica-Hollywood- Raymond Fault system, which is collectively part of a greater than 200-km long west-trending system of oblique, reverse and left-lateral faults that separate the province of California on the north, from the Peninsular Ranges on the south.

The Hollywood Fault extends east-northeast for about 17 km through densely populated areas, including the cities of Beverly Hills, West Hollywood, and the community of Hollywood within the City of Los Angeles, trending eastward to the Los Angeles
River Valley.

The buildings now affected include landmarks such as the Capitol Records tower in Hollywood, the Mondrian, Chateau Marmont and Standard hotels in West Hollywood, three elementary schools, a performing arts college and Immaculate Heart High School and Middle School.

A total of about 12,000 properties lie in the newly drawn fault zones, roughly 500 feet on each side of estimated fault lines.

However, some believe the maps are wrong.

Mike Reader, the CEO Group Delta consulting, has carried out test in the areas said to be in the fault line - and found nothing.

'The first site we investigated on the map does not have a fault on it,' he told MailOnline.

He called for the maps to be delayed while more work is carried out on the exact location of the fault.

'The big question is, is the map right - and that's still an open question,' he claims.

'There is a possibility that the map could be approved with the wrong information.

'There is a very high degree of uncertainly over this.

'They need to withhold finalisation of the map until more information is available.'

Reader said the map could even impact existing buildings, such as hotels, ability to expand or remodel.

St. Stephen's Episcopal Church on Yucca street is, according to the new map, in the middle of a fault line.

'There's a lot of unanswered questions,' Jaime Edwards-Acton, senior pastor at St. Stephen's, told the LA Times.

'We have to figure out: Do we have to change anything?'

The maps were released under the authority of the Alquist-Priolo Earthquake Fault Zoning (AP) Act that was passed following the 1971 San Fernando earthquake. 

The AP Act is a state law designed to reduce the hazard from surface fault rupture during an earthquake.

The maps reveal the fault zones the Government says are most at risk.

'Earthquake Fault Zones are regulatory zones that encompass surface traces of active faults that have a potential for future surface fault rupture,' the California Geological Survey said.

The Standard Hotel

Sunset Towers Hotel

Chateau Marmont Hotel

New developments will be restricted within the fault zones.

Owners wanting to build would have to do underground seismic testing, which is the only definitive way to locate a fault.

'The principal traces of the Hollywood fault are recommended for zoning, as they are believed to be still active,' the report concluded.

Public schools are already working on research to see how at risk they are.

The Los Angeles Unified School District has begun an underground study to see whether the Hollywood fault runs underneath Atwater Avenue Elementary School, and in the past has demolished classroom buildings found to be on top of faults.

WHAT CAUSES AN EARTHQUAKE?

The aftermath of the 1984 LA Earthquake: Experts say the fault zone may be larger than previously thought

A fault is a fracture in the crust of the earth along which rocks on one side have moved relative to those on the other side.

Most faults are the result of repeated displacements over a long period of time.

A fault trace is the line on the earth's surface defining the fault, which for zoning purposes is defined as one that has ruptured in the last 11,000 years.

Surface rupture occurs when movement on a fault deep within the earth breaks through to the surface.

Surface ruptures associated with the 1992 Landers Earthquake, in San Bernardino County, extended for 50 miles with displacements of an inch to 20 feet. Not all earthquakes result in surface rupture.

The Loma Prieta Earthquake of 1989 caused major damage in the San Francisco Bay Area but the movement deep in the earth did not break through to the surface.

Fault rupture almost always follows preexisting faults, which are zones of weakness.

Rupture may occur suddenly during an earthquake or slowly in the form of fault creep.

Sudden displacements are more damaging to structures because they are accompanied by shaking.

The Hollywood Fault is located along the southern boundary of the Santa Monica Mountains, where Cretaceous granitic rocks; mainly quartz diorite, and Feliz biotite granodiorite, are unconformably overlain by folded and faulted early to middle Miocene Topanga group marine siltstones, sandstones, and basaltic volcanic rocks, and late Miocene Puente Formation marine sandstones, siltstones and shales.

The Azusa Unified School District has also begun searching for the fault shown crossing the campus of Charles Lee Elementary School.

However, some firms say the maps are wrong - and are causing a major problem.

An earthquake fault line should not be drawn underneath Blvd6200, one of Hollywood's largest residential and commercial projects, a lawyer for the developer claimed earlier this month.

The lawyer, John M. Bowman, told the state Mining and Geology Board that the fault line drawn by the California Geological Survey 'is not clearly detectable … and therefore is not sufficiently well-defined to be included on the map.'

Millennium Partners, which co-owns the Capitol Records building and is seeking to build two skyscrapers next to it, also says the state's fault map is wrong.

Millennium's geologists have taken soil samples and plan to dig a trench.

'We are confident the trenching will corroborate our previous investigations and demonstrate conclusively that no active fault exists on our site,' Philip Aarons, one of the developers at Millennium Partners, said in a statement.

Luxury hotels could also be hit, with the Mondrian, the Sunset Tower and the Standard all close to the fault.

The Standard 'will take necessary precautions to ensure the safety of their guests, which could potentially include structural assessment or seismic investigation,' spokeswoman Kaitlin Kominsky told the LA Times.

Representatives of the Sunset Tower and the Mondrian declined to comment.