HOUSTON- When you think of Houston, fault lines usually aren't the first things that come to mind.
Video
Unsteady ground: Houston's fault lines slowly tear homes apart
June 16, 2009
But that doesn't mean they're not there.
Residents of one Spring Branch neighborhood know all about unsteady ground. They're sitting along Houston's best-known fault, the Long Point Fault.
It goes on for 11 miles, spanning from near 290 through the Beltway/I-10 exchange all the way to Eldridge Parkway.
And it's just one of roughly 300 known faults in the metro area.
According to experts, there has never been a significant earthquake recorded in Houston.
That doesn't mean it couldn't happen, but the main concern here is damage over time.
University of Houston geology professor Shuhab Khan accompanied 11 News to a Houston home in that Spring Branch neighborhood that sits atop a fault line.
The fault's movement was easy to see.
In one spot that used to be level, there is now an 8-inch step.
Cabinets in the kitchen that used to close don't anymore, and the driveway is full of cracks.
"One side is moving down, one is staying up. So imagine that. It cracks the walls. It cracks your driveway. It cracks your foundation and your house could ultimately be broken apart," Khan said.
Khan said the land under the home is moving at about a centimeter a year, and it's affecting other houses, too.
Neighbor Roger Wilkerson used to have a flat kitchen. Now, if you put a ball on the floor, it will roll to one side.
"Back in '89, this kitchen was actually perfectly flat. Evened out," Wilkerson said.
These days, everything is crooked.
"When a lot of people bought these houses, we didn't know anything about it," Wilkerson said of the fault line.
There isn't much they can do.
Two homes that used to sit next door to Wilkerson's are no longer there.
The homes were condemned and demolished.
Khan said the fault line is at fault, but more research needs to be done.
He said by using 3-D laser technology, researchers could be able to show exactly how fast the ground is moving along the fault.
That could help to better determine how to live and work around the them.
