LA Times: At the Salton Sea, a warning sign of the Big One?

[marmar]

At the Salton Sea, a warning sign of the Big One?
Swarm of small quakes in the Salton Sea area has scientists wondering if faults there are transferring energy to the larger San Andreas, where a major temblor could occur.

By Jia-Rui Chong
9:06 PM PDT, March 23, 2009


Scientists are watching closely to see if small faults crossing under the Salton Sea are transferring energy to the larger, more dangerous San Andreas fault after a series of small quake swarms in the area.

The quakes appeared to be tapering off by Monday afternoon, according to the monitoring system run by the U.S. Geological Survey and Caltech. But in a 48-hour period starting Saturday morning, 42 quakes shook just south of Bombay Beach on the Salton Sea. The quakes ranged in magnitude from 0.5 to 3.3, with three larger than 3.0 hitting the area Saturday afternoon.

Scientists are particularly interested in the area because an earthquake that starts in Bombay Beach and ripples northwest along the San Andreas fault could be the Big One that devastates Los Angeles, said Graham Kent, a research geophysicist at UC San Diego.

These quakes appear to be taking place at the hazy intersection of several recently mapped faults crossing beneath the Salton Sea and the the San Andreas fault.

The worry for scientists comes from a case in 1987, when a magnitude-6.2 earthquake on one of the crossing faults appeared to trigger a 6.6 quake 12 hours later on the Superstition Hills fault to the south. The San Andreas fault is north of these crossing faults and the geometry is similar, Kent said. ...........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-quakes24-2009mar24,0,6429356.story

[XemaSab]

1. .

:popcorn:

[Deja Q]

2. No, that's just Peggy Bundy having her very first orgasm...

:yoiks:

[Arctic Dave]

3. If they do get a large earthquake, it will be because God hates

gay people. So says one of the troglodytes I work with.

[barbtries]

4. really?

that's so...sick.

i'm from california. the big one's been coming down the pike for my entire life - that's 53 years. we have had some big ones, but never actually THE big one. just can't live worrying about it. unless and until they figure out a way to predict earthquakes reliably the way they do with hurricanes and to an extent, volcanoes, just can't worry about it.

[Arctic Dave]

6. No kidding. I work in the oilfields and lets just say that a lot of

these guys aren't your sharpest tools in the shed.

[itsrobert]

5. I was just thinking about the "Big One" this morning

while in San Diego. Something tells me it's going to be soon. Maybe a matter of days.