Name: Monday's swarm of quakes on San Andreas fault being scrutinized by scientists
Brand: sandiegouniontribune.com
SKU: sandiegouniontribune-com-91
Availability: OnlineOnly

critic

Monday's swarm of quakes on San Andreas fault being scrutinized by scientists

preview

Copyright © 2022, The San Diego Union-Tribune | | AdvertisementAdvertisement Scientists are carefully monitoring a that erupted on Monday in the Salton Sea below the southern tip of the dangerous San Andreas fault. They are concerned about the possibility that the swarm could trigger a larger event, a phenomenon that has occurred in that region in the past. Scientists said Monday afternoon that there’s a less than 1 percent chance that the swarm will produce a 6.0 or larger quake within the next month. But the location of the swarm is worrisome due to its closeness to the San Andreas. The swarm began with a 3.2 quake at 6:33 a.m. on a previously unidentified fault roughly 7.5 miles south-southwest of the San Andreas. Through 4 p.m. Monday it was followed by 13 other quakes measuring 3.0 or higher, including a 4.6 temblor at 8:56 a.m. that was felt in parts of San Diego County, including San Diego, Encinitas and Escondido. Two of the quakes measured 4.0. AdvertisementThis is the fourth swarm in that overall region since 2001, scientists said. “We have had many swarms in that area over the years and there has been no triggering of a fault, but we’re watching this closely,” said Neil Driscoll, a geophysicist at UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography. “We can’t say whether it is or isn’t going to trigger a larger earthquake.”Scientists note that they have seen quakes trigger bigger temblors in that same region. Driscoll pointed to a chain reaction that occurred in November 1987 when a 6.2 quake on the Elmore Ranch fault near the Salton Sea triggered a 6.6 temblor just over 11 hours later on the Superstition Hills fault. Both quakes were widely felt in San Diego County. Tom Rockwell, a seismologist at San Diego State University, said Monday that “it is possible that the swarm will trigger a larger quake.” But he added that there’s no way of knowing when such an event might occur, or how large it would be.The southern San Andreas fault makes scientists nervous because it periodically produces huge quakes. The last event occurred in about 1680 when the fault generated a quake that exceeded 7.0. Scientists suspect that such events happen about every 175 to 200 years. That means the southern San Andreas has gone a bit longer than normal in experiencing a so-called “big one.” Sign up to get Breaking News email alerts Get alerts on severe weather, road closures and other major breaking news. You may occasionally receive promotional content from the San Diego Union-Tribune. Show Comments Load More Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement AdvertisementAdvertisement AdvertisementAdvertisement

Copyright © 2022, The San Diego Union-Tribune | | AdvertisementAdvertisement Scientists are carefully monitoring a that erupted on Monday in the Salton Sea below the southern tip of the dangerous San Andreas fault. They are concerned about the possibility that the swarm could trigger a larger event, a phenomenon that has occurred in that region in the past. Scientists said Monday afternoon that there’s a less than 1 percent chance that the swarm will produce a 6.0 or larger quake within the next month. But the location of the swarm is worrisome due to its closeness to the San Andreas. The...

public

Gary Robbins

grobbins

The San Diego Union-Tribune, the region's leading news source since 1868. Follow our journalists, too: http://j.mp/UTstaff

sandiegouniontribune.com

Credible

Speculation

Anecdotal Evidence

Generalization

Stacking the Deck

Appeal to Authority

Straw Man

Slippery Slope

Emotional Appeal

Red Herring

False Dilemma

Illogical

Moral Equivalency

Ad Hominem

Correlation w/o Causation

Semantics

Begging the Question

Faulty Analogy

Non Sequitur

Bandwagon

Dogmatism

Failing Occam's Razor

Biased

Pure Opinion

Hit Piece

Racial Bias

National Bias

Religious Bias

Financial Incentive

Political Agenda

Gender Bias

Misused Image/Video

Study Misinterpreted

Mistake

Misused Term

Science Misrepresented

Factual Error

Satire

Surface Level

Lack of Reliable Sources

Sensational

Not Credible

Investigative

Balanced

Well Sourced

Great Context

sports

entertainment

U.S.

international

business

technology

science

culture

politics

media

health

Monday's swarm of quakes on San Andreas fault being scrutinized by scientists

No article scores yet.

CRITIC REVIEWS

PUBLIC REVIEWS