The most recent risk assessment, outlined in maps published by the California Geological Survey, illustrate the devastation possible from extreme-but-realistic scenarios.

In the Bay Area, as elsewhere, the working classes have seen their jobs go overseas and their neighborhoods become unaffordable.

Between Hawaii and California, trash swirls in giant ocean currents, caught up in the infamous, Texas-sized Great Pacific Garbage Patch. This is just one of many found across the globe. Efforts to ...