Earthquake Swarm – No Big One Yet
Last updated 6/18/2019 at 2:44pm
Over the past 10 days, an earthquake swarm has struck in the Riverside and San Bernardino Counties, scientist at Caltech and the U.S. Geoglogical Survey said. But not to worry, as this will not trigger the “Big One.”
Scientists discovered that human-created changes affecting the Salton Sea could be the reason why California’s “Big One” earthquake is overdue.
The Glen Avon Earthquake Swarm began May 25 and continued till June 3.
The USGS said a magnitude-3.2 quake, the most recent and strongest of the swarm, struck at around 9:34 p.m., in the Cabazon area, three miles northeast of Banning.
Within minutes, a magnitude 1.9 and magnitude 2.3 followed. There were more than 430 quakes as of June 4, according to the USGS.
Despite the small magnitude of some of the quakes, they were still felt due to shallow depth.
“Based on past historic recordings, this swarm is only expected to generate events of magnitude less than 4.0,” according to a Caltech-USGS statement. “Earthquake swarms are characterized as clusters of events in space and time that have no obvious mainshock.”
