Earlier this year, the US Geological Survey predicted that there is a 7% chance that a major 8.0 earthquake will rock Southern California within the next 30 years. However, a new study conducted by NASA says that there is a 99.9% likelihood of a large 5.0+ quake occurring, such as last year’s La Habra quake, within two-and-a-half years.
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A powerful earthquake struck off the coast of Chile at 3:54 PM Pacific Daylight Time. The quake was at a depth of 15.5 miles and was 145 Miles NNW of Santiago. The quake struck in the Nazca Plate Region, which is one of the most active earthquake zones on the Pacific Rim and in the world. The quake took place on the South American arc, which marks the boundary between the Nazca Plate and the South American Plate and stretches approximately 6,000 miles along the South American Coast. The relatively shallow depth of the quake and the slow upward gradient of the ocean floor toward land in the region has caused the tsunami warning, but no serious wave action ensued.
As San Francisco commemorates the 25th anniversary of its last serious quake this week, a new report has warned that the city could once again be sitting on top of a ticking seismic time bomb.
Scientists tracking the movements of four highly stressed seismic faults that form part of the Bay Area’s densely populated San Andreas system have discovered worrying surface mobility which suggests that they could burst forth in a major quake at any time.
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Los Angeleans were given an unexpected alarm call from Mother Nature on Monday morning as an earthquake shook the city at around 6.25am.
The earthquake was initially graded at 4.7 on the Richter scale, but this reading was reduced to 4.4 a short time later.The areas bearing the brunt of the shaking were Santa Monica, Beverly Hills, Pacific Palisades, and West Los Angeles.This is the largest quake to hit Southern California this year, though the north of the state was rocked by an earthquake last week.
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