California's in an exceptional earthquake drought. When will it end? [View all]

[Zorro]

California is in an earthquake drought.

It has been almost five years since the state experienced its last earthquake of magnitude 6 or stronger — in Napa. Southern California felt its last big quake on Easter Sunday 2010, and that shaker was actually centered across the border, causing the most damage in Mexicali.

Experts know this calm period will eventually end, with destructive results. They just don’t know when this well-documented geological pattern will shift.

“Earthquake rates are quite variable: We have a decade or two where we don’t have many earthquakes, and people expect that’s what California is always like,” said Elizabeth Cochran, seismologist with the U.S. Geological Survey. Eventually, “we’re going to dramatically see a change in earthquake rates.”

https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-earthquake-drought-storm-20190402-story.html