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How many earthquakes have hit California in 2024?
Another earthquake, this time registering 3.5 on the Richter scale, struck Ontario, California on Saturday. Are they becoming more common in the state?
Residents in Ontario, California got a shock earlier today when a preliminary 3.5-magnitude earthquake struck the Inland Empire on Saturday, September 7. The seismic activity was first reported shortly after 10am local time and resident continued to report aftershocks for an hour.
Saturday’s earthquake was just the latest in a string of incidents that have made 2024 a historic year for seismic activity in Southern California. In fact, seismologists have found that this year has seen more earthquakes than any year since 1988.
By mid-August Southern California had already recorded 13 earthquakes measuring 4.0 or higher on the Richter Scale. Typically, the region would see between 10 and 12 of that size in a single year.
Does California have more earthquakes than any other states?
A report from the United States Geological Survey (USGS) found that the area that constitutes modern day California “has been tectonically active since the supercontinent Pangaea broke up approximately 200 million years ago.”
This is largely due to the state’s proximity to the western edge of the North American plate, one of the most seismically active areas on the planet. The lateral movement between the Pacific and North American plates has created many fault lines, increasing the probability of earthquakes.
As such, the California and Alaska are the two states with the highest likelihood of significant seismic activity with shaking. However, the areas with the most potential damage are on the East Coast, around major cities like Washington DC, Philadelphia, New York, and Boston. These areas with such a high concentration of buildings could suffer the most damage if an earthquake strikes.
This is even true in California, where the Puente Hills thrust fault system has the potential to be five to ten times more destructive than the San Andreas Fault.
“They are considered the set of faults capable of producing probably the most damage of any earthquake in SoCal because of the location,” said geophysicist Dr Lucy Jones of the California Institute of Technology. “Because they run under old structures and densely inhabited areas.”