A new study has revealed that tiny earthquakes used to hit Southern California in every three minutes. Interestingly, these quakes are so tiny and usually, no one feels these tremors. This new finding also reveals that tremors are happening in the area ten times more than seismologists previously thought.
During the research, scientists found that more than 1.8 million earthquakes had hit Southern California between 2008 and 2017. Interestingly, most of these minor tremors were measured below one in the Richter scale, and this is the major reason why these quakes went unnoticed. The research team is now planning to learn more about the shaking swarms and faults which may help to predict a megaquake which may happen in the future.
"It means the Earth is failing all the time. Right now we really don't understand fundamental things about earthquakes. Anything would be a great help," said Zachary Ross, a seismologist at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California and the lead author of the study, abc7 reports.
Kate Scharer, a U.S. Geological Survey research geologist who was not involved in the study revealed that this is an exciting moment in seismology. As per Kate Scharer, studies like this will help to know more about powerful earthquakes which will happen in the future.
"It is a pretty exciting moment in seismology. It's long been desired to understand ... what's happening in the time leading up to large earthquakes. A big question for us is how the state of stress might evolve, anywhere from days to months, leading up to large earthquakes," revealed Scharer, latimes reports.
In the meantime, a section of conspiracy theorists has started claiming that critical planetary alignment is the reason behind the increase in seismic activities. Quoting the words of self-proclaimed seismic researcher Frank Hoogerbeets, these conspiracy theorists argue that planetary alignment has direct impacts on destabilizing the tectonic plates on the earth.
