Indonesian Earthquake Activity Could Potentially Affect Calif.

October 8, 2009
KCBA

SALINAS, Calif. - As the anniversary of the Loma Prieta earthquake nears, experts ponder how active earthquake activity in the South Pacific might affect the Central Coast.

"There's been a lot of activity over there, more than than I've seen in recent years," said Central Coast News' Chief Meteorologist Norm Hoffman.

Several dozen quakes hit the Indonesia/South Pacific region over the past week causing wide-spread damage. Many of the quakes measure over 5.0 on the Richter Scale. On Wednesday, several over 7.0 hit.

"One theory of how it all might affect California is that we're relieving stress in the South Pacific area on all the faults and that would mean that the activity will gradually settle down and not affect us," said Hoffman.

The other theory, however, could be seen as not so encouraging.

Image: Ring of Fire activity show where stress could be building along
the Juan de Fuca Subduction Zone.

"The other approach would be that we're causing some stress on a portion of the ring of fire that goes all the way around the Pacific, up by Japan and across Alaska and down by California and that stress could result in increased earthquake activity here," he added.

However, Hoffman said while Californians shouldn't be alarmed, they should be prepared.

"They should always be prepared for earthquakes in California," he said.

According to California's Office of Emergency Services, some easy things to prepare for an earthquake include making sure you have enough supplies like food and water to last up to 72 hours. Also, go over "duck, cover and hold" drills with your family every six months. Last, have a plan in place on where you would meet should you become separated from other family members during an earthquake.

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