New Earthquake swarm near the San Andreas Fault. Southern California be on Guard.. Saturday

Added: 2026-05-12

[00:00:01]What's going on there, folks? Welcome back here to a Saturday afternoon, early evening, May 9th, 2026. 5:06 PM California time. This is Earthmaster jumping in uh with a quick update and special update here on an increasing amount of earthquake activity there across Southern California right now. So you can see on the Barrett station uh just had a uh well another three-pointer come in to the Broly seismic zone that showed up there on the ANZA station as well. So this is part of a big earthquake swarm happening here in the last hour. This is it's it's a big event nothing big in terms of magnitude but this is a lot of activity stirring up out of the blue. Uh but also it's part of an ongoing sequence of events here from about the Cascadius abduction zone up north uh down across the San Andreas fault here where we've had a number of threes outside of Redlands and the Riverside area recently uh and now further down south here along the San Andreas fault at the Broly Seismic Zone, we're getting a decent swarm of activity. And this is not just a bunch of microquake activity. got 3.5, a bunch of twos, uh another 3.5 here in the last uh 15, 20 minutes or so. Uh for a total of 22 earthquakes in the last hour, in the last hour. Uh look what's up here in between these two events. The one from well, this stirred up this morning as well, but it's been stirring up far as earthquake activity here in the last few days. This here is the south branch of the San Andreas fault. The extreme southern segment which has been building up stress here for over 300 years. 300 years uh built up stress and strain there along this dark line segment. It's part of the south branch of the San Andreas fault. uh the extreme well the total here of the south of the southern branch of the San Andreas fault extends right about the Parkfield section all the way down here to the salt and sea where we're seeing that earthquake activity right now the uh on the Broly seismic zone um I've been talking about this folks this area down here did not rupture back in the last big event there along the south branch uh far as the earthquake activity goes there was a 7.9 back in 1857 uh that was big one. 169 years has passed. It did not rupture with the southern segment there. That means that the southern segment here should go first because that has the most builtup strain and then that will follow an unzip pattern here to include, excuse me, the rest of the southern branch here of the San Andreas fault as a whole resulting in a 8.1 magnitude earthquake. Now, it makes sense here to see a larger magnitude because there's more lengthy of a fault system here in terms of the total south branch of the San Andreas fault. Stand by for just a second here.

[00:03:05]Just started getting tickling in my throat all of a sudden here. It's really weird. Uh so that activity that we're seeing right now is um down south along the Broly seismic zone.

[00:03:16]It's skipping over the 300year uh builtup strain here. There's one earthquake right off of it, 08. Uh, but the importance here, thank you. The importance here is the amount of earthquake activity that's occurring north and the activity that's occurring south here with uh, you know, it's definitely building the stress out here right now as far as this drain goes. Uh, so keep an eye on that. Um, it could pop literally any second. Um, it's not like this happened yesterday. It's not like it happened 50 years ago or 80 years ago, you know, when when maybe a new generation was ending or an older generation was ending. This has been building up stress and strain for quite a while here, folks. 300 years across this segment and the rest are 169 years as shown in this graph here. So, a lot has passed, a lot of stress building up and uh these swarms here, good indicator things are on the move out here. This is not just a bunch of microquake activity out here in um the Riverside area. In fact, they've had their own earthquakes there in the three range. There's two of them here in the last 24 hours. If we go back the last seven days, uh we had a pretty good cluster here of about 55 earthquakes. Um some threes in there, bunch of twos.

[00:04:35]This three-pointer came in late last night a little bit closer here to the San Andreas fault. There's actually some migration from this area northward.

[00:04:44]Um, so right now all eyes here on the south branch of the San Andreas fall, this is not looking good. Yes, we've had swarms here in the past. Um, but in this type of event here when it's centered like literally right around the south branch here, this this year uh this section here that's built up for 300 years, uh, I don't I don't recall the last time we had something like that.

[00:05:06]We've had swarms down here and it's been a little while since we've had a swarm like this, but we got se we got two distinct swarms uh at the top part here and then at the bottom area leaving this center portion um very likely that we could see something larger happen on that soon. Uh so watch that very closely. There's a looks like there's a couple more earthquakes coming in here. No telling how many are actually happening. You can see one, two, three, four. quite a few earthquakes happening in a cluster of activity. So, um I don't know if they're reporting all of them or not, but they are happening quite rapidly uh with an earthquake uh every minute or so it looks like here according to the USGS map. 33 earthquakes here uh right now stirring up on the Broly seismic zone.

[00:05:53]So, watch Southern California here specifically very closely. And if you counter in all this activity that's been happening across Nevada, um the activity up there along the Cascadia subduction zone last night, the the strain is on out here across the West Coast here, folks. Uh complacency is is a big thing when people think, well, it's never going to happen. They say it's another 40 years before we'll see something.

[00:06:16]Well, you know, how long have they been saying it's going to be another 40 years, right? I've been hearing that for well not another 40 years but been hearing for quite a while that uh we're inching closer and closer to the big one out here. And that uh 8.1 will be considered the big one. And like I say, more than likely it will rupture down south here. If we start seeing fours and fives out here on this south branch, uh then I would say, okay, this thing's getting ready to pop. But then again, it could pop just instantly. It could pop here by the end of this update. Uh so be on guard out there, folks. around Southern California. Cascadia subduction zone quake. There's that uh 4.9 from last night. Um trimmer counts. I don't know if the trimmer counts are out yet. Let me see here.

[00:07:02]See what we got if they're out. Um they're not out yet, I don't think, because it's showing zero. Yesterday we had a bunch of trimmer.

[00:07:11]Um let me go back one day here. A bunch of trimmer underneath Northern California.

[00:07:17]This is not volcanic tremor, but slow slip events there. A sign that the Wandu Fuka plate is being shoved further underneath the North American plate here, adding stress to the locked area.

[00:07:28]And that's exactly where we seen that earthquake here last night following a bunch of trimmer activity during the day yesterday here underneath Northern California. So the South Brand, this is right there at the Cascadia subduction zone, folks. The southern end. Um, what we got to watch this area, folks. Lot going on. Hate to ruin weekend plans out here, but we do need to be on guard. I wouldn't say get up out of California and leave. Um, you know, we just need to be prepared. And the Cascadia is survivable. The San Andreas fault is survivable uh when the big ones strike out here. It's just a matter of not being complacent, being in the right state of mind, and having an earthquake plan when things do happen out here.

[00:08:07]You know, you factor in everything out here, the Nevada swarms, a lot of pressure out here across this area of the plate boundary, and it's only a little segment to us may seem like a big segment here, right from Southern California up to the Cascadia. For us, little ants here on the planet, yes, that uh is a big deal, but in terms of the Pacific plate, it's only a little segment here that can easily snap just like a matchick uh at any time. And I think there's sufficient time out here that has uh built up across California where we're going to see something uh kick up here soon. New Zealand at 4.9 this afternoon as well. Um down there across North Island. This one 139 miles deep. Guess what that's associated with?

[00:08:49]The Hickorangi subduction zone. That's another subduction zone here that's uh well it's had a lot of time here.

[00:08:56]Hundreds of years I believe. I don't recall the last um exactly the last date when they had a big earthquake out there along the c the um Hikarangi, but it's capable of producing its own mega quake out here that 4.9 139 miles deep into that subduction zone. A lot of lot of uh earthquake activity here recently just off the North Island coast. Um, here's, you know, you can probably see a swarm of activity on the earthquake 3D globe if I pull it up a little bit, including a five-pointer, but this is a little bit more south and deeper. So, watch the New Zealand area. Seems like California, New Zealand just kind of battling it out.

[00:09:35]Obviously, separate plates, but uh candy corner here right across the Pacific plate.

[00:09:44]Aside from that, folks, I'm just kind of watching things. I will check back in a little bit later on this evening uh unless something changes. But watch this swarm. It is uh stirring up like crazy right now.

[00:09:59]It's at the southern end of the Broly Seismic Zone, which is lit literally just a hop, skip, and a jump away from the uh well the San Andreas fault here.

[00:10:08]The area that's been building up stress for 300 years. Actually, a little bit over 300 years. up north, down south.

[00:10:15]Watch the middle point boundary. That's couldn't be even, you know, more obvious right there. Got to watch the San Andreas fall. We'll catch you guys out here later on this evening, folks, for the uh Saturday night update. I just came in uh to do a quick update on it because of everything stirring up. Got to get back out there, finish my yard work. We'll see you guys out here in a little bit.