A California city has been rocked by hundreds of tremors as locals fear a 'big earthquake'.

Residents of San Ramon in California's East Bay have been hit by more than 300 earthquakes over the past month, raising widespread concerns that a devastating seismic event could be approaching.

The tremors, which began on November 9 with a magnitude of 3.8 on the Richter scale, continued unabated, with the most recent recording a magnitude of 2.7.

San Ramon lies directly above the Calaveras Fault, an active component of the broader San Andreas Fault system.

This fault has the potential to generate a 6.7 magnitude earthquake, which would affect millions throughout the San Francisco Bay Area.

San Ramon lies directly above the Calaveras Fault, an active component of the broader San Andreas Fault system

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California State Parks

According to estimates by the US Geological Survey, there is a 72% chance of such an event occurring before 2043.

An earthquake of this magnitude would constitute a major seismic event capable of causing severe damage to densely populated East Bay communities.

Despite the continuing tremors, scientists from the US Geological Survey sought to allay fears about an imminent large-scale earthquake.

“This is a lot of shaking for people in the San Ramon area to deal with,” Sarah Minson, a research geophysicist at the USGS Earthquake Science Center, told SFGATE.

“It is completely understandable that this can be incredibly frightening and emotionally affecting, even if it is not likely to be physically harmful.”

More than 300 earthquakes shook the city of San Ramon during the past month

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US Geological Survey

She stressed that the current activity does not indicate a threat to the main fault lines in the region.

“Given the size and locations of the earthquakes that have occurred so far, there is not a high risk of something happening on one of the major faults,” Ms Minson explained.

Anne-Marie Baltay, a geophysicist fellow at the USGS, echoed that assessment, telling Patch: “These small events, as with all small events, do not indicate an imminent large earthquake.”

However, Ms. Baltay urged continued vigilance, saying: “However, we live in a country that is prone to earthquakes, so we must always be prepared for a major event.”

Scientists attribute these seismic clusters to subterranean fluids such as water or gas moving through cracks in the rocks, weakening the surrounding materials and leading to a rapid series of minor tremors.

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Scientists attribute these seismic clusters to subterranean fluids moving through cracks in the rocks

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“It is also possible that these small earthquakes are triggered by the movement of fluids through the Earth's crust, which is a natural process, but the numerous faults in the area may facilitate these micro-movements of fluids and smaller faults,” Ms. Baltay told Patch.

USGS records reveal that similar swarms struck the San Ramon area in 1970, 1976, 2002, 2003, 2015 and 2018.

Importantly, none of these previous events preceded a major earthquake.

“This has happened several times before here in the past, and there have been no major earthquakes that have followed,” Ms. Minson told SFGATE.

Research on the San Ramon swarm in 2015 revealed that the subterranean fault network is much more complex than previously understood, comprising many small, closely spaced faults rather than one dominant structure.

Roland Borgmann, a UC Berkeley seismologist involved in that study, suggested to SFGATE that the current sequence may represent an extended pattern of aftershocks rather than a typical swarm, since the initial magnitude 3.8 quake was the strongest.

Ms. Minson agreed, noting that subsequent tremors were likely caused by that first event.

The complexity of the fault system includes the Calaveras Fault terminating nearby, with movement possibly transitioning to the Concord-Green Valley Fault to the east.

Emily Brodsky, a seismologist at the University of California, Santa Cruz, acknowledged the difficulty of drawing conclusions, telling SFGATE: “Although this is the kind of thing you would expect to happen before a big earthquake, we can't distinguish this from the many times it has happened without a big earthquake.”

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