Whose Fault Is It?

I check the website for latest earthquakes in the USA, which shows quake activity within the hour (red), within the day (yellow), and/or within the week (blue). As I've been watching, there is never a day that goes by that there is no activity on the fault that runs from the Gulf of Mexico straight up the Coachella Valley -- along the base of the mountains. The earthquake map looks like perf paper that says "tear apart here."

We all know that this area once was under water, either as a huge lake or as part of the sea. We all know that we are ribboned with fault zones, some of which are visible and featured as part of the jeep tour packages through the fault zones. We all know that "we" are expecting another BIG ONE in SoCal as it's been 150 years since the last BIG ONE, which discounts the 7.4 that rocked the high desert area between Big Bear and 29 Palms in the early 1990s.

What no one knows is exactly where/exactly when, and there is no way for that to be predicted. However, based on watching the proliferation of red, yellow and blue boxes along this fault line, I'm going to guess that it will be a whole lot sooner than it's going to be later.

To check it out for yourself, go to http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsus/Maps/US10/27.37.-120.-110.php