There have been a series of earthquakes along the California coastline. A 3.1-magnitude earthquake was reported 8 miles from Palm Springs on Monday morning at 9:40 a.m., the US Geological Survey (USGS) reported. On Sunday afternoon, a 4.5-magnitude earthquake shook San Diego County, striking about 10.5 miles southeast of Ocotillo Wells at a depth of 6.2 miles.
According to the California Institute of Technology, there have been more than 1,200 quakes in California and Nevada during the last week.
In addition, several quakes have taken place along a portion of the Ring of Fire along the west coast of South America. The Ring of Fire is an area in the Pacific Ocean basin where earthquakes and volcanic eruptions frequently occur. Also known as the Circum-Pacific Belt, the ring “traces boundaries between several tectonic plates - including the Pacific, Juan de Fuca, Cocos, Indian-Australian, Nazca, North American and Philippine Plates,” the National Geographic reports.
A 5.4-magnitude earthquake hit northern Chile on Sunday, while a quake also struck near the east coast of Honshu, Japan, the same day. An extremely powerful 7.3-magnitude quake also shook Indonesia’s Maluku province on Wednesday. The quake’s epicenter was approximately 111 miles northwest off the Tanimbar Islands Regency of Maluku, which consists mostly of the Tanimbar Islands, and it occurred at a depth of 82 miles, Indonesia’s meteorological and geophysics agency BMKG reported. Indonesia is often struck by earthquakes, volcanic eruptions afnd eruptions because of its location on the Ring of Fire.
Other areas have also experienced earthquakes in recent days. A 5.1-magnitude earthquake jolted Iran after midnight in the early hours of Friday. Its epicenter was about 34 miles east of the country’s capital city of Tehran, Daily Sabah reported. The quake killed two people and injured 33 others and was followed by eight aftershocks. Being one of the most seismically active countries in the world, earthquakes are not foreign to Iran.
Two earthquakes were also reported in southern Tennessee in the US on Sunday morning, taking place about 52 miles from Chattanooga, according to the USGS. The first quake had a magnitude of 3.1, and it was followed by a 2.8-magnitude tremor.
