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The earliest known earthquake in the U.S. state of California was documented in 1769 by the Spanish explorers and Catholic missionaries of the Portolá expedition as they traveled northward from San Diego along the Santa Ana River near the present site of Los Angeles. Ship captains and other explorers also documented earthquakes.
Estimates predict a multi-segment rupture of the fault zone is capable of producing an earthquake of magnitude 7.6–7.9. [6] [3] An earthquake this large in such close proximity to densely-populated southern California would be devastating. [7] In 1986, a M s 5.8 earthquake struck off the coast of Oceanside, killing 1 and injuring 29 more.
Earthquake swarms raise public-safety issues: first, because the end of seismic activity cannot be predicted; second, because it is uncertain whether another earthquake with a magnitude larger than those of previous shocks in the sequence will occur (the 2009 L'Aquila earthquake in Italy illustrates this, with an M W 6.3 shock following a swarm ...
A map shows earthquakes above magnitude 2.5 that struck in the last week in Southern California. Quakes marked in orange occurred over a 24-hour period ending at 9 a.m. Monday, while those in ...
The largest was a 5.3-magnitude earthquake, which happened seven miles west of Calipatria, California, according to the US Geological Survey. Rural Southern California was rocked by swarm of ...
The Brawley Seismic Zone represents the northernmost extension of the spreading center axis associated with the East Pacific Rise which runs up the axis of the Gulf of California and is in the process of rifting the Baja California peninsula away from the mainland of Mexico, with significant subsidence taking place at southern California's Salton Sea and at Laguna Salada in Baja California.
Due to the large amount lost by insurance companies, most insurance companies either stopped offering or severely restricted earthquake insurance in California. In response, the California Legislature created the California Earthquake Authority (CEA), which is a publicly managed but privately funded organization that offers minimal coverage. [69]
The probability of a serious earthquake on various faults has been estimated in the 2008 Uniform California Earthquake Rupture Forecast. According to the United States Geological Survey, Southern California experiences nearly 10,000 earthquakes every year. [3] Details on specific faults can be found in the USGS Quaternary Fault and Fold Database.