Ground Stability
The Sacramento Region is noted for its geological stability. Unlike the San Francisco Bay and Los Angeles Areas that have high levels of seismic activity, the Sacramento Region ranks among the lowest in the state for the probability of a major earthquake.Several regions in the San Francisco Bay and Los Angeles Areas experience serious damage such as hardened home fixtures cracking, pipes breaking, and structures shifting off of foundations during a major earthquake. In contrast, the Sacramento Region is expected to experience minimal shaking. For example, the area was unaffected by the 1989 Loma Prieta (San Francisco Bay Area) earthquake that measured 7.1 on the Richter scale. Professional geological reports documenting the area’s ground stability are available from the Sacramento Area Commerce and Trade Organization (SACTO).
Geological stability was an important relocation factor, due to their delicate computer operations, for firms such as Intel Corporation, Raging Wire, Hewlett-Packard, Apple Computer, NEC Electronics, Franklin Resources, Inc., as well as many other “mission critical” information and data storage systems for many other major corporations.