Is the Big One coming? An earthquake erupted in June 2020 northeast of Bakersfield with a magnitude of 5.8 that had physicists and geolists claiming ‘we are way overdue’ for a cataclysmic seismic event.
Although California, which sits within the “Pacific Ring of Fire”, is frequently hit by earthquakes, many people fear a cataclysmic event, or an earthquake measuring 8.0 or greater, is brewing deep underground.
Big One History
According to Dr Michio Kaku, a theoretical physicist and professor at the City College of New York, California is “way overdue” another Big One.
After a magnitude 6.4 earthquake hit 125 miles northeast of Los Angeles in July 2019, the physicist shared a grim warning with the west coast state.
He tweeted: “The last Big One in the LA area was in 1680, over 300 years ago.
“The average cycle time for big earthquakes on the San Andreas fault is 135 years. We are way overdue.”
The 1680 incident was a magnitude 7.9 earthquake. It occured along the San Andreas fault line.
A similar, magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck San Francisco in 1906. It was responsible for more than 3,000 people dead and leaving hundreds of thousands homeless.
If the Big One ever erupts in California, it will most likely strike along the San Andreas fault – an active tectonic plate boundary.
The US Geological Survey said: “The paleoseismic data on different parts of the San Andreas Fault Zone are all telling us that some sections appear to be past the average, or ‘overdue’ for a significant earthquake.