For many, many years now, members of the scientific community have been warning that the state of California, which lies atop some pretty serious fault lines, has been overdue for a massive earthquake, which we horrifyingly refer to as “the Big One,” which could strike the area at any time. It’s a wonder anyone ever gets a chance to rest peacefully at night knowing this could happen. I’d be a nervous wreck all the time. It’s no wonder so many people pop Xanax in the land of fruits and nuts. The stress of living there must be through the roof.
Anyway, this is why it was so alarming to find out about two sets of what are being called “earthquake swarms” having recently hit the Golden State, as reported by the Los Angeles Times. If you take a quick look at the Southern California Earthquake Data Center to see how many of these quakes struck over the past week, your chin will become well acquainted with the floor. A stagger 7 day total of 1,010 earthquakes rocked California. Anything that tops a thousand is a massive red flag. Is this is a sign the Big One is on the way?
I certainly hope not.
One of the biggest quakes that hit the state shook, rattled, and rolled Imperial County:
A magnitude 4.1 earthquake shook California’s Imperial County near the Salton Sea Monday morning. The quake struck 18 miles south of Salton City and 4 miles southeast of Ocotillo Wells at 5:17 a.m., according the U.S. Geological Survey.
Residents as far away as Chula Vista, Mission Viejo, Highland and Indio reported feeling the quake, the USGS reported.
Before that one hit, there were two other “earthquake swarms” that sent shivers up the spines of scientists. One of the swarms took place over a weekend near the border California shares with Mexico:
Another earthquake swarm has been rumbling along the California-Mexico border.
More than two dozen quakes greater than magnitude 2.5 have occurred since just after midnight Saturday, with epicenters about 175 miles southeast of downtown Los Angeles and 100 miles northeast of San Diego, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
They have occurred largely along farmland between the towns of Brawley and Imperial in Imperial County. The largest quake was a magnitude 3.9 that struck at 4:05 p.m. Saturday, bringing light shaking to the Imperial Valley as well as south of the border and rattling Mexicali.
Prior to that quake, a swarm also hit about 18 miles to the southeast of Mexicali, which is Baja, California:
A separate swarm of earthquakes occurred a week ago, about 40 miles southeast of the most recent quake activity. Last week’s swarm occurred about 18 miles southeast of Mexicali in Baja California, with the largest a magnitude 4.2 that was felt as far away as El Centro in California and Yuma, Ariz.
The hope and prayer is that these swarms are just normal, slight shifting of the tectonic plates and are not indicative of anything major on the horizon. However, sooner or later, the Big One is going to arrive. And when it does, not much is going to be left of the Golden State.
In fact, experts and authorities in this particular area have projected that an earthquake of this magnitude could cause hundreds of billions of dollars in damage:
If the Big One did strike, ‘it would be a matter of a few tens of seconds before the shaking from a
San Andreas event that ruptures the segments closest to Los Angeles reach our urban areas,’ Jonathan Stewart with the University of California, Los Angeles told DailyMail.com.
According to the California Earthquake Authority, the natural disaster would cause destruction in a 100-mile radius of the fault line, which starts near Eureka and ends below Palm Springs, killing at least 1,800 people, crumble millions of homes and cause more than $290 billion in damages.
There are some who think this earthquake will be so devastating that it could totally alter the geography of the state permanently. This sucker would be apocalyptic in nature. And it seems we have more than just earthquakes to worry about. Across the globe, there is a huge, super volcano that seems to be waking up.
And that, my, friends is could for absolutely no one.
According to End of The American Dream:
On Monday, a magnitude 4.4 earthquake struck the Campi Flegrei super volcano in Italy. This was the largest earthquake to hit that region in 40 years…
A 4.4 magnitude earthquake struck Italy’s Campi Flegrei super volcano Monday evening, causing mild damage in the town of Pozzuoli, the epicenter, and as far away as the city of Naples, some 20 kilometers (12 miles) away, according to Italy’s National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV).
Cracks in walls and falling cornices were reported, Italy’s Fire Brigade spokesman confirmed to CNN.
The 4.4 earthquake at a depth of 3 kilometers is the strongest earthquake to hit the highly seismic area in the past 40 years, according to INGV data. The quake is part of an ongoing “seismic storm” that has seen more than a dozen events over 2.0 magnitude in the past 48 hours.
And that’s not the only one. An expert revealed that in that specific area, the ground has been rising at a rate of about 2 centimeters a month:
Seismic activity on Campi Flegrei, which is home to at least 360,000 people across seven of the most at-risk inhabited hubs, has intensified in the past two years, with the frequency and strength of the quakes increasing as the caldera, the basin at the top of the volcano, weakens and pressure beneath it builds. This causes the ground to rise and the volcano’s crust to stretch.
“The earth is continuing to rise at a rate of 2cm a month, a higher rate than last year, and unfortunately it seems to be continuing at this rate,” Mauro Di Vito, the director of the Vesuvius Observatory for Italy’s National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV), told reporters. “We expect similar earthquakes … I cannot make predictions but we can expect the swarm to continue.”
Let’s hope this sucker doesn’t erupt because there is a population of half a million people that live close by.
Major natural disasters happen to be a part of world history and to be honest, we’ve not had a massive one in a very long time. However, don’t allow yourself to be lulled into a false sense of security. The clock is ticking.
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