If I felt that 7.2 shaker in Baja California here in LA, then San Diego would have felt the 9.9 in "Earthquake."
A point to note though - I've read that most geologists consider any quake larger than an 8.5 impossible on the San Andreas fault in Southern California.
"It's people..."
i wonder how bad sd's damage wouldve been.
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A 9.9 quake is not possible. The strongest possible quake on the San Andreas Fault would be an 8.1. Are you sure the quake in the movie was a 9.9? Looked more like an 8.0.
When the 7.2 2010 Easter Sunday quake struck just south of the U.S./Mexico border, I felt it in Orange County, but it didn't do any damage here. Both the 6.6 Sylmar quake in 1971 and the 6.7 Northridge quake in 1994 didn't do any damage in San Diego. In fact, both of those quakes did minimal damage in Orange County.
I roughly estimate for every 100 miles the epicenter of the quake is away from you, drop the magnitude by one point. The distance between downtown Los Angeles and downtown San Diego is about 120 miles. The epicenter of both the Sylmar and Northridge quakes were about 140 miles from downtown San Diego. The distance between the Easter Sunday quake and Orange County was about 200 miles. The part of the San Andreas Fault that is closest to downtown Los Angeles is located in Palmdale, which is about 50 miles north of downtown L.A. I would guess a 7.5 quake in either Sylmar or Northridge would do minimal damage in San Diego.
Another thing to take into consideration is the depth of the quakes. The shallower the quakes are, the more widespread and more destructive the quakes can be. Deeper quakes are not as widespread or as destructive.
In a super quake like that I would think so.
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