Quakes Threatening the Home Ground

L.A. has always been a seismic hot spot, but somehow I managed to grow up there barely experiencing it. My mother tells a story about diving under the bed with me as an infant during a good sized quake.  I felt a few minor ones growing up. I remember water sloshing out of fish tanks at the tropical fish store I worked at in High School.  I missed the 1971 Sylmar quake by going to college.  Never had any in my years at Humboldt State (which has had several recently), and none in Oregon.  In fact, the biggest quake I ever felt was the Virginia quake three years back that damaged the Washington Monument.

It seems the activity is picking up in the L.A. area again: Quakes are increasing, but scientists aren't sure what it means

After a relatively quiet period of seismic activity in the Los Angeles area, the last five months have been marked by five earthquakes larger than 4.0. That hasn't occurred since 1994, the year of the destructive Northridge earthquake that produced 53 such temblors.

Over the next two decades, there were some years that passed without a single quake 4.0 or greater.

Earthquake experts said 2014 is clearly a year of increased seismic activity, but they said it's hard to know whether the recent string of quakes suggests that a larger one is on the way.

"Probably this will be it, and there won't be any more 4s. But the chance we will have a bigger earthquake this year is more than if we hadn't had this cluster," U.S. Geological Survey seismologist Lucy Jones said. "Every earthquake makes another earthquake more likely."

Someday another big one is going to hit the LA area, but so far the answer as to when is eluding seismologist. A younger brother, Mark, and his family live right in the center of that red blob. I hope they manage to be away some place nice if and when it happens.