Now Reading: Geophysicist warns California ‘super overdue’ for major quake after Colombia tremor
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Geophysicist warns California ‘super overdue’ for major quake after Colombia tremor
Geophysicist warns California ‘super overdue’ for major quake after Colombia tremor
Geophysicist Stefan Burns, who had earlier flagged seismic risk in South America, has warned that California is “super overdue” for a major earthquake, with Southern California at heightened risk after a 7.4…
The Story in Brief
Geophysicist Stefan Burns, who had earlier flagged seismic risk in South America, has warned that California is “super overdue” for a major earthquake, with Southern California at heightened risk after a 7.4 magnitude quake struck Colombia’s Chocó province. The Colombia earthquake caused widespread destruction and hundreds of deaths, affecting cities including Cali.
Burns said in a YouTube livestream that the six-month-to-one-year window after the Colombia tremor is concerning, though he cautioned that Northern California cannot be ruled out. Earthquake scientists, however, cannot accurately predict the timing or location of quakes. A separate Caltech scenario by seismologist Lucy Jones shows a 7.8 rupture on the San Andreas fault could cause two minutes of violent shaking and severe infrastructure damage across the state.
The Indian Opinion
Every time a big quake strikes somewhere, a self-styled predictor surfaces with a deadline for California. Burns’s “super overdue” claim plays into that fear, but seismologists have repeatedly said no reliable method exists to forecast earthquakes weeks or months ahead. The real test is not the calendar but preparedness: will California’s vulnerable water systems and transport networks survive the inevitable major event when it actually comes? That question remains unanswered, no matter how many YouTube warnings go viral.
Sources (2): hindustantimes.com, timesnownews.com
This story was synthesised by AI from the 2 sources linked above.
Updated: this story now draws on 2 sources.
