'Big One' Coming? Small Quakes Pepper Southern California

Concerns that a violent earthquake will shatter Southern California were revived on New Year’s Eve after some 250 small earthquakes rattled a wide area southeast of Los Angeles.

The estimated 250 individual earthquakes over the weekend were small, the strongest clocking in at 3.9 magnitude, but the fact that they all occurred approximately 30 miles from the 800-mile San Andreas fault is concerning, according to scientists.

There were hundreds of small quakes recorded, prior to the new year, in an area known as "the Brawley Seismic Zone," which connects the San Andreas and Imperial faults, both considered by seismologists of being capable of triggering ruinous temblors.

One such earthquake struck the northern end of the San Andreas fault in 1906, causing the deaths of about 3000 people and triggering a fire that leveled 80 percent of San Francisco.

Considering historical precedent and the nature of the region's seismology, a large earthquake is, at the least, likely...........http://sptnkne.ws/dhNZ
 [sputniknews.com]
4/1/17
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Related:

• Salton Sea Fault: New fault discovered in earthquake-prone Southern California region
• Nearly 200 earthquakes hit near SoCal's Salton Sea, USGS says. Scientists say earthquakes that occur near fault lines increase the chance that a larger quake will follow.

•  Fault link means larger quakes possible on US west coast

• Calaveras Fault

• San Andreas Fault

• Hayward Fault