For Two Weeks, This California Town Has Averaged One Earthquake Per Hour

Tuesday, October 27, 2015 - 18:00 in Earth & Climate

San Ramon Earthquake Swarm USGS/ComCat catalog A map of some of the earthquakes that hit the town of San Ramon. Large earthquakes can be incredibly serious, like the one that struck Afghanistan on Monday. But not all earthquakes are devastating, earth-shattering monsters. Sometimes, they're just...there. Over the past two weeks, over 408 earthquakes have rattled the town of San Ramon, California. That's a little over an earthquake every hour, and sets a record for the area, beating out a 2003 swarm which lasted for a month and had 120 earthquakes. It's an impressive accomplishment, but San Ramon has a long way to go if it wants to beat seismic heavyweights like Yellowstone National Park, which recorded 3,000 earthquakes over 3 months in 1985. The largest earthquake in...

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