The Faults That Ruptured in Twin California Quakes Are Very, Very Weird, Geologists Say.

[Judi Lynn]

By Jeanna Bryner, Editor-in-Chief, Live Science | July 6, 2019 11:35pm ET

- click for image -

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An onlooker views newly ruptured ground after a 7.1-magnitude earthquake struck on July 6, 2019, near Ridgecrest, California.
Credit: Mario Tama/Getty Images

On July Fourth, the most powerful earthquake to hit Southern California in nearly 20 years struck a remote part of the Mojave Desert. A day later, an even larger temblor rocked the same area.

Though earthquakes beget earthquakes, there's generally thought to be just a 5% chance that one quake will be followed by an even more powerful one, according to geoscientists. But that wasn't the only unusual feature of this earthquake duo in SoCal. Turns out, the earthquakes ripped Earth in weird ways.

In particular, the temblors occurred on perpendicular faults in a zone known to be pretty complicated. [Northridge Earthquake: 20th Anniversary in Photos]

Buried faults
The magnitude-6.4 temblor struck the sparsely populated SoCal area at 10:33 a.m. local time on July 4, about 122 miles (196 kilometers) north-northeast of Los Angeles and just 11 miles (18 km) east-northeast of Ridgecrest. That quake was followed by several aftershocks, according to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).

More:
https://www.livescience.com/65885-southern-california-earthquakes-weird-faults.html

[Faux pas]

1. Wow

just one more thing I don't miss about SoCal. Lol, here in Washington we only have 5 volcanos to worry about

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

2. I'll stick to our blizzards, thank you very much.

[Faux pas]

3. ...

[cstanleytech]

4. 10 according to

https://www.volcanodiscovery.com/washington.html