Could Recent Cluster of SoCal Quakes Be a Lead Up to ‘The Big One’? Here’s What We Know

Southern California struck with 13 large tremors this year, with the latest rattling residents Monday.

An employee of the Seismological Laboratory at California Institute of Technology (Caltech), points to a shake alert user display on a laptop screen, at the Caltech Seismological Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., in a file photo. Frederic Brown/AFP via Getty Images

A recent cluster of bigger earthquakes hitting Southern California might have shaken residents but doesn’t necessarily serve as an indicator that a more destructive tremor could occur in the near future, according to one seismologist.

The Southern California region, known for its deadly quakes in the past, has had 13 earthquakes measuring 4.0 or greater in magnitude this year, according to Lucy Jones, a seismologist from the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

The same area has only had about five earthquakes per year of 4.0 magnitude or greater over the past 20 years, which is fewer on average compared to the last 90 years, Jones said on social media Aug. 13.

Since 1932, the region has recorded about 10 to 12 magnitude 4.0 quakes per year.

“So lots of variability but 2024 is closer to normal than the quiet of the last decades,” Jones wrote on X Aug. 13.

Does this mean a larger quake is on the horizon? Probably not, according to the expert.

The recent cluster of earthquakes doesn’t mean anything for larger earthquake potential, a spokesperson for Jones told to The Epoch Times in an email Aug. 14.

The latest larger earthquake in the area hit Highland Park, about 6 miles northeast of Los Angeles, at 12:20 p.m. Aug. 12 and could be felt around the region.

In Pasadena, close to its epicenter, a water line ruptured at Pasadena City Hall and water poured out of a pipe on the exterior of the building. Employees were temporarily evacuated.

Jones said she missed feeling the Pasadena-area quake as she was parking her car at a grocery store, but noted it struck at essentially the same location as a magnitude 3.4 quake that hit June 2 and was reminiscent of a very large quake decades ago, she posted on X.

The Highland Park earthquake appeared to come from a “shallowly dipping fault, like the 1987 Whittier Narrows [magnitude] 5.9 [earthquake],” Jones said.

The quake came less than a week after a 5.4-magnitude tremor that struck the Bakersfield area Aug. 6 and was felt across most of the state’s southern region.

Lucy Jones, senior advisor for risk reduction for the U.S. Geological Survey, seen in this 2014 file photo, said Southern California has had 13 earthquakes of 4.0 magnitude or larger in 2024. File Photo by Reed Saxon/AP Photo

And it was large enough to prompt Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathryn Barger to remind the public about earthquake preparedness.

“Today’s [earthquake] is a good reminder that we should practice lifesaving actions during an earthquake: drop, cover [and] hold on,” Barger posted on social media. “It’s also a reminder that we live in [earthquake country] so we need to be prepared.”

In January, United States Geological Survey (USGS) geophysicist Mark Petersen, the lead author of a study published this year about quake activity in the U.S., said California could be hit with a massive earthquake—possibly up to a 6.7 to 7.0 magnitude—in the next century.

“There’s a very high probability—and our maps show it—for large earthquakes to occur in California,” Petersen told The Epoch Times at the time. “It could be in 100 years, or it could be 50 years.”

Traffic moves along in downtown Los Angeles on Aug. 12, 2024, after an earthquake struck the Los Angeles area. John Antczak/AP Photo

USGS has also developed a new capability to identify large earthquakes quickly using satellites to monitor earth-surface movement. From that, a ShakeAlert System was developed.

The system is used by agencies in California, Oregon, and Washington to send alerts to cell phones just prior to an earthquake. It also triggers automatic actions, such as slowing down trains to prevent derailments and opening firehouse doors so they don’t jam shut.

With newly-added Global Navigation Satellite System sensors, the system may alert residents faster and accurately determine the magnitude and area of shaking from larger earthquakes, according to the USGS.

“While rare, earthquakes greater than magnitude 7 can have the greatest impact on human lives and infrastructure,” Robert de Groot, USGS ShakeAlert Operations Team member, said in a release June 5.