This polygon shapefile depicts fault rupture hazard zones applicable to unincorporated areas of the County of Santa Clara, California. The County is responsible for prohibiting location of structures for human occupancy across the traces of active faults in order to mitigate the hazard of fault rupture. According to the California Geological Survey, a fault is defined as a fracture or zone of closely associated fractures along which rocks on one side have been displaced with respect to those on the other side. This layer is part of a collection of GIS data for Santa Clara County, California.The Santa Clara County Planning Office is part of the Department of Planning and Development. Their primary function is to plan and regulate land use and development within the unincorporated portions of Santa Clara County. Other responsibilities include policy analysis, GIS services, research and technical assistance relating to land use, housing, environmental protection, historic preservation and demographics. The Geographic Information Services Department has taken on all those activities related to GIS data and GIS process and procedures that cross organizational boundaries. Santa Clara County encompasses 15 cities and approximately 1.7 million people. This coverage can be used for basic applications such as viewing, querying, and map output production, or to provide a basemap to support graphical overlays and analyses of geospatial data.