Dr. Lucy Jones Breaks Down Imperial Valley Seismic Activity

13 On Your Side's Christian Galeno spoke with California’s earthquake expert, Dr. Lucy Jones, who broke down the activity in the Imperial Valley and how people can stay safe.

IMPERIAL VALLEY, Calif. (KYMA/KECY) - No your mind is not playing tricks on you, it’s shaking in the Imperial Valley. Earthquake experts say, it’s nothing new to the Desert Southwest.

“Definitely, at some point in the future, we're going to have much bigger ones," says Dr. Lucy Jones, California's own 'seismologist next-door'. "Those will do a lot more damage.”

As of Thursday morning, the U.S. Geological Survey reported 7 earthquakes larger than a 4.0 magnitude on the ritcher scale. Over 54 earthquakes stronger than 3.0 magnitude have shaken since Wednesday.

"This type of behavior is a characteristic of the imperial valley, it's in something called the Brawley seismic zone,” said Dr. Jones. "It's got all these little tiny faults instead of one big one."

The swaying comes from an area south of the Salton Sea and west of Brawley. Even though Dr. Jones says we shouldn't get anything stronger than a 5.4 magnitude, this pattern of rocking has happened in the past.

"There were earthquake swarms like this quite often, every year or two,"s said Dr. Jones. "In the 1970s, we also went into a period of really high activity and now we're starting to see it again.”

Determining when another series of earthquakes will happen or when the big one will hit California is not realistic. We often think that the weather also helps us predict when an earthquake will strike.

"Quakes are so far down in the earth's surface weather doesn't change what's happening," said Dr. Jones. "There's a tradition of earthquake weather in every culture with earthquakes, because we want to have a pattern.”

But what you can predict is your own preparedness.

“We need that muscle memory of getting under the table to remember that's the right thing to do," said Dr. Jones. "I wouldn't worry about it particularly today, these are just too far away, but in the long run you're in one of the most active places of California.”

For more resources on how you can prepare for an earthquake, you can visit earthquakecountry.org.