Salton Sea earthquake swarm draws attention [Report]

Should we worry about the Salton Sea earthquakes?.

More than 20 earthquakes with a magnitude of 2.5 or greater occurred in the Salton Sea in the span of about 20 hours on Monday.

About 10 rattled the area Monday morning and 16 more followed as the day went on, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

The shaking started about 4:40 a.m. with a small, 2.6-magnitude earthquake and continued until about 10:50 p.m. Monday.

The area they struck in is just south of the Riverside County line along the San Andreas Fault. It’s about 40 miles southeast of Indio.

The quakes reached a magnitude of 4.3 twice and 4.1 once, according to the USGS. After one of them, the USGS issued a tsunami information statement which, of course, said there is not tsunami danger.

Most of the earthquakes happened in a cluster near the fault line, but two – one with a magnitude of 3 and the other with a magnitude of 3.5 – happened apart from that cluster.

Folks as far as Indio reported feeling some of the earthquakes, but generally they were felt up to Mecca, which is roughly 15 miles northwest of the area.

A 3.4-magnitude earthquake struck near Desert Hot Springs on Saturday.

Christopher B. Taub