July 9, 2009
By Stevie Smith
The Tech Herald
While it may not be a sign that California is teetering of the verge of collapsing into the Pacific Ocean, researchers from the University of California, Berkeley, have voiced their concerns regarding constant tremors along the San Andreas Fault line.
Photo: The infamous San Andreas fault , seen here further south, lies just a few miles from downtown San Francisco. (USGS(
Suggesting five years of continuously ominous tremors could indicate a build up of energy ahead of a potentially massive earthquake, a report released by the researchers reveals they have measured and recorded almost 2,200 tremors since a substantial magnitude 6.0 quake struck Parkfield, California, in 2004.
Published in the journal Science, the report points out that persistent tremor changes “suggest that stress is now accumulating more rapidly beneath this part of the San Andreas Fault.”
The region hit by the spike in tremor activity is notable as it’s where the Fault line experienced a magnitude 7.8 quake in 1857.
According to seismologist and report co-author Robert Nadeau, the San Andreas Fault line, which runs through the southern region of California, experiences a quake every 85 to 142 years. Based on that timeline, the problematic region is now long overdue a quake event.
“The fact that the tremors haven’t gone down [since the 2004 quake] means the time to the next earthquake may come sooner,” warned Nadeau.
The research study was funded by the U.S. Geological Survey and National Science Foundation.
http://www.thetechherald.com/article.php/200928/4037/Study-San-Andreas-Fault-suffering-ominous-tremors