California hit by FOURTEEN earthquakes in less than 24 hours

More than a dozen earthquakes have struck Southern California in less than a day and experts warn that more tremors may be on the way.

The latest hit just a few miles from the city of Indio in the Coachella Valley, which is approximately 100 miles east of Los Angeles and San Diego.

It was measured at magnitude 3.8, hitting at 1.48pm ET Tuesday along a section of the infamous San Andreas Fault known as the Mission Creek strand.

The latest seismic swarm in California started just before 9pm ET on Monday when a strong magnitude 4.9 earthquake was detected in the same area. 

Tuesday afternoon’s minor earthquake was one of more than a dozen noticeable aftershocks to strike the densely populated area in under 16 hours.

The initial earthquake reportedly caused strong shaking at its epicenter near Indio and was reported to USGS by thousands of residents all the way to the US coastline, rattling over five million people in Los Angeles and San Diego.

The day-long swarm has been taking place just 15miles from the site of the annual Coachella music and arts festival, which brings roughly 250,000 people to the area in April.

US Geological Survey (USGS) officials have warned that there is a 98 percent chance of more earthquakes stronger than 3.0 in magnitude hitting the region over the next seven days, and a 39 percent chance that those aftershocks will exceed magnitude 4.0.

Since Monday night’s magnitude 4.9 quake, the agency has registered over 150 seismic disturbances in the Coachella Valley.

The majority of those tremors registered under magnitude 2.0, making them almost too weak for people to feel at ground level.

However, over 12 have fallen between magnitude 2.5 and 4.9, meaning residents likely felt some considerable shaking during the quakes but no severe damage was caused. No injuries have been reported.

While this week’s swarm has spared locals from any major damage, fears continue to grow about the future stability of the San Andreas and other major fault lines in California.

The San Andreas is an 800-mile-long fault line running from Southern California, through the Bay Area, and all the way into the northern part of the state and Pacific Ocean.

A recent 2021 study in Science Advances concluded that the southern part of the fault has been quietly storing a huge amount of stress for centuries.

When it finally snaps, just like a rubber band breaking, scientists have theorized it could release all that built-up energy in one major event, potentially causing a very large earthquake on the Mission Creek strand.

According to a 2015 report by USGS scientists, there is a 95percent probability that at least one major quake, stronger than magnitude 6.7, will strike somewhere in the region by 2043. 

USGS’s earthquake forecast predicted that this impending earthquake had a 72 percent chance of striking right in the San Francisco Bay Area, home to approximately eight million people.

Overall, the grim report estimated that there was more than a 99 percent certainty that a major quake over magnitude 6.7 would erupt somewhere in the state, including Southern California, closer to Los Angeles and San Diego.

Scientists previously believed most of the sliding action in Southern California, where the two huge pieces of Earth’s crust grind past each other, was happening along other branches of the San Andreas, like the Banning strand. 

However, the 2021 report discovered that the Mission Creek strand, the section running through the Coachella Valley, was actually the main driver of seismic activity in this part of Southern California.

Researchers in California found Mission Creek handles most of the sideways sliding between the Pacific Plate and the North American Plate, covering about 90percent of the total sliding movement in this part of California.

In 2008, USGS officials conducted a simulation of what a 7.8 magnitude quake would do if it erupted along the San Andreas fault under Los Angeles.

This hypothetical ‘Big One’ would cause roughly 1,800 deaths, 50,000 injuries, and $200 billion in damages, according to the Great California ShakeOut.

It would also cause a surface rupture of up to 13 feet, causing significant damage to infrastructure crossing the fault line, such as roads, pipelines, and rail lines.

As for buildings, roughly two million buildings would be affected, with 50,000 buildings completely destroyed or red-tagged, meaning they could not house people again.

The report also warned that older, unreinforced structures and high-rises with brittle welds were particularly vulnerable.