California at imminent risk of a major earthquake

San Andrés fault

More than 140 tremors have put California on alert, and it is that a major earthquake could strike at any moment. The earthquakes, which had an intensity between 1,4 and 4,3 according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS, for its acronym in English), could have affected the San Andrés fault, which poses a threat to the country.

California could be shaken by an earthquake of intensity 7 or higher, as a consequence of the friction between the North American plate and the Pacific plate.

The more than 140 tremors recorded in recent days occurred in the Salton Sea, a lake northeast of San Diego. Although they were not very intense, they worry the experts, who warned that you can't let your guard downas a very strong earthquake could occur at any time.

Cities such as San Diego, Ventura, San Bernardino, Riverside, Orange, Los Angeles, and Kern and Imperial counties could be the first and most affected by the possible earthquake, so the alert is maximum.

San Andres

Still, the director of the Southern California Earthquake Center, Thomas H. Jordan, is optimistic. He commented that the chances of a large earthquake occurring in the next few hours are low, as tremors in the Salton Sea have also decreased. However, there are sections of the San Andrés fault that have been active for a long time. Such is the case of the southernmost rift, which has been producing earthquakes for 330 years.

Major earthquakes in California occur every 150 or 200 yearsTherefore, the threat is always present, especially considering that in 1906 there was one of magnitude between 7,9 and 8,6 in San Francisco that caused more than 3000 deaths.

If you want to know what are the last earthquakes that have occurred, you can do click here.


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