The southern San Andreas fault is 10 months pregnant

The Big One is Long Overdue, But Don't Worry...
Southern California fault lines have shaken more in recent weeks than they did for most of the past year.But experts say don't worry: Though the Big One is long overdue, the recent quakes don't necessarily mean it's coming today.In April, Southern California registered two weeks with 45 quakes of magnitude 2 or above. It's the first time in almost a year that the region experienced back-to-back weeks of more than 40 tremors a week, according to geologist Charles Watson, who compiles the syndicated column Seismo-Watch."There's no reason to be alarmed by the current level of seismic activity," said Doug Given, a seismologist with the U.S. Geological Survey."It's quite common. In any random process, there will be times you get more of what you're measuring and times you get less.If there were some pattern of seismic activity that tipped off a larger earthquake, we'd know about it."Such "background seismicity" like what has been recorded in Southern California fluctuates constantly, Watson said."We see this thing commonly," said Kate Hutton, a leading seismologist at the California Institute of Technology's Seismological Laboratory in Pasadena. "It's sort of like our weather. We have wet years and dry years."Officials measure anywhere from 20 to 30 quakes a day in Southern California, Given said. Typically those measure at least 1.8 on the Richter scale, since smaller earthquakes aren't always picked up by detection equipment.The Coachella Valley's last big quake was in June 2005 - a magnitude-5.2 that hit near Anza.It's a false notion that those smaller tremors are good because they postpone larger quakes. Officials say they actually release little of the earth's pressure.And it's also a false notion that a lot of smaller shakes means a larger quake is coming any day now. Officials say sometimes it does - but sometimes it doesn't.The joy and curse of earthquakes is that they're unpredictable. But what is known is that the Coachella Valley is long overdue for a massive quake.It's been more than 325 years since the one hit the section of the San Andreas fault that runs along the foothills of the Coachella Valley, from the Banning Pass to the Salton Sea.As Thomas Jordan, director of the Southern California Earthquake Center, said in January: "The southern San Andreas fault is 10 months pregnant."Whether or not the region's earthquake frequency keeps picking up - or even if it drops off - experts say it's always good to be earthquake prepared just in case."Something is bound to shake loose eventually," Watson said. "It's ominous. It's something that's out there."
http://www.millennium-ark.net/NEWS/07_Earth_Changes/070506.feel.EQ.no.panic.html
As in the days of Noah...