PASADENA, Calif. — It splits California as neatly as the Bush-Gore vote did Florida, but unlike a butterfly ballot, the San Andreas Fault is a cinch to read.

Of course, having space-borne radar eyes helps, as did Space Shuttle Endeavour on its February mission to map a sizeable chunk of the world’s topography in three dimensions.

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Although it will take years yet to process all of the data collected during the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM), NASA has steadily released a trickle of images from the mission.

The latest, seen here at right in the click-to-enlarge image, is of the world-infamous San Andreas Fault, as it stretches toward the southeast, cutting along the base of the mountains in the Temblor Range near Bakersfield, California.

In the February 16 image, the San Andreas appears as the distinctively linear feature to the right of the mountains, as it runs ribbon-like through the rich farmland of the San Joaquin Valley, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) north of Los Angeles. In the background, Mount Piños looms, its 8,831-foot (2,692-meter) peak capped in snow.

To create the image, NASA combined SRTM elevation data with 1984 Landsat color data. The fluffy white clouds and blue sky come courtesy of an artist’s brush.

In 1857, one of the largest earthquakes ever recorded in the United States occurred just north of the Carrizo Plain, visible to the right of the fault. With an estimated magnitude of 8.0, the quake ruptured the surface along a 220-mile (350-kilometer) stretch of the fault, rattling the then-sleepy pueblo of Los Angeles in the process.

The San Andreas forms the active boundary between the North American and Pacific plates. It stretches some 800 miles (1,200 kilometers), making it the longest fault in the state.

NASA is no stranger to the San Andreas -- two of its three California centers lie a seismic stone’s throw from the fault.

Indeed, its Ames Research Center will stage a three-day exercise this week to hone its skills in dealing with an actual earthquake along the San Andreas. Participating will be NASA’s Disaster Assistance and Rescue Team, along with the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Urban Search and Rescue Team and California’s Urban Search and Rescue Team.