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.