USGS Warns of Another Major Earthquake in California

There have been two large earthquakes in California in the past three days.

The state sits along the San Andreas Fault.

The San Andreas Fault is a continental transform fault that extends roughly 1,200 kilometers through California. It forms the tectonic boundary between the Pacific Plate and the North American Plate, and its motion is right-lateral strike-slip.

Another earthquake of a similar magnitude could strike within the next week according to the United States Geological Survey.

Several aftershocks have occurred.

The area is basically a ticking time bomb, a major earthquake will occur in the region at some point in the future.

Scientists believe quakes on the Cascadia subduction zone may have triggered most of the major quakes on the northern San Andreas within the past 3,000 years. The evidence also shows the rupture direction going from north to south in each of these time-correlated events.

According to a study, a massive earthquake on the southern section of the San Andreas fault would result in major damage to the Palm Springs-Indio metropolitan area and other cities in San Bernardino, Riverside and Imperial counties in California, and Mexicali Municipality in Baja California.