Caltech researchers say there is an elevated risk that a long-overdue earthquake, dubbed the ‘Big One,’ is on the way, after recent seismic activity shifted a previously-dormant fault line for the first time in 500 years. California was rocked by several major earthquakes in July and August. The Ridgecrest earthquake in Southern California was the strongest in 20 years and caused roughly 100,000 aftershocks.All of the pressure from these tremors and aftershocks was so extreme that it apparently woke a sleeping giant in the form of the 185-mile-long Garlock Fault, causing it to ‘creep’ almost an inch (a big deal in geological terms if nothing else).
“This is surprising because we’ve never seen the Garlock Fault do anything. Here, all of a sudden, it changed behaviour,” said Zachary Ross, assistant professor of geophysics at Caltech and an author of a study on the fault.
Poster Comment:
Reno Nevada is 25 miles west of Los Angeles because over he centuries more and more of California falls into the ocean.
If a fault line is only active once every 500 years, it is more likely to be a Big One than one that was active just 250 years ago.
Garlock is east-west near Santa Barbara. It could activate north-south quakes.
When the Spanish priests first arrived, the Indians said the really Big One was the Garlock fault.
An 8.35 earthquake releases the same amount of energy as two 25 megaton Hydrogen bombs.
In the 1906 SF quake, the center was 100 miles away. In Marin county a road was thrown 20 feet by the quake. If you live near Memphis or St Louis, you can expect something similar.
Japanese scientists have proven that we have more quakes and volcanoes during Grand Solar Minimums than any other times. Why? Dr Valentina Zharkova says because during a Grand Solar Minimum the sun's magnetosphere is reduced which allows more cosmic rays (nuclear particles from decaying stars) to strike the earth which energizes fault lines and magma chambers.
There was one quake on Christmas day 1699 during the Maunder Minimum and 4 quakes on 3 different days during the Dalton Minimum in 1811-1812.