The Silver Creek Fault runs through and adjacent to the 25-mile-long (40 km), 5-mile-wide (8 km) Evergreen Basin,[1] and generally lies parallel and between the Guadalupe River and Coyote Creek, running directly through the center of San Jose.
[2] It also runs parallel to the Hayward Fault, which is located 5 miles (8 km) to the east.
[3] The City of San José considers the fault to be a rupture hazard only in the foothills but not in the Santa Clara Valley floor.
Studies in 2003 and 2004 for the Silicon Valley BART extension, which will cross the fault, found that the northern segment may be as shallow as 100 feet (30 m) deep but found no evidence of surface rupture.
[4] A 2017 article suggests that the fault may have effectively become dormant or abandoned roughly 1.5 to 2.5 million years ago.