the.com/fault line
Where the earth keeps receipts and eventually cashes them in.
means A fracture in the earth's crust where rock on either side has shifted, and where future movement — and earthquakes — are likely to happen again.
from Straightforward compound of 'fault,' used in geology since the 1800s for a break or displacement in rock strata, plus 'line.' 'Fault' itself traces back through French to Latin 'fallere,' meaning to deceive or fail — a rock layer that 'fails' or breaks is, in miners' and geologists' old usage, said to be at fault. The figurative sense — a hidden crack in a relationship, a society, a plan — follows naturally once the geological meaning was established.
- definition
- fracture where rock masses slide past each other
- san andreas
- over 750 miles long, mostly invisible
- stress build-up
- energy stores for decades before releasing
- metaphor use
- borrowed by relationships, politics, and geology alike