2 Million ‘Hidden’ Earthquakes Identified In California – A Quake Occurs Every Three Minutes In The Region

Eddie Gonzales Jr. – MessageToEagle.com – While examining data scientists identified 2 million previously hidden earthquakes that that occurred between 2008 and 2017 in California, USA.

The new data reveal that there are about 495 earthquakes daily across Southern California occurring at an average of roughly three minutes apart. Previous earthquake cataloging had suggested that approximately 30 minutes would elapse between seismic events.

Credit: Public Domain

It can sound strange an earthquake can go unnoticed, but it’s possible. According to researchers at the California Institute of technology, these are so small that they can be difficult to spot amid the background noise that appears in seismic data, such as shaking from automobile traffic or building construction.

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To overcome the low signal-to-noise ratio, the team turned to a technique known as “template matching,” in which slightly larger and more easily identifiable earthquakes are used as templates to illustrate what an earthquake’s signal at a given location should, in general, look like.

When a likely candidate with the matching waveform was identified, the researchers then scanned records from nearby seismometers to see whether the earthquake’s signal had been recorded elsewhere and could be independently verified.

Template matching works best in regions with closely spaced seismometers, since events generally only cross-correlate well with other earthquakes within a radius of about 1 to 2 miles, according to the researchers.

“Seismicity along one fault affects faults and quakes around it, and this newly fleshed-out picture of seismicity in Southern California will give us new insights into how that works,” Egill Hauksson, research professor of geophysics at Caltech said in a press statement.

This new data will now help scientists to gain a better picture how seismic events affect and move through the region.

Written by Eddie Gonzales Jr. – MessageToEagle.com Staff Writer