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Take Two

Study: Fracking in Salton Sea area triggers earthquakes

By Take Two Staff
Published Jul 15, 2013
A geothermal energy plant taps deep underground heat from the southern San Andreas Fault rift zone near the Salton Sea on July 5 near Calipatria, California. Scientists have discovered that human-created changes effecting the Salton Sea appear to be the reason why California's massive "Big One" earthquake is more than 100 years overdue and building up for the greatest disaster ever to hit Los Angeles and Southern California. Researchers found that strands of the San Andreas Fault under the 45-mile long rift lake have have generated at least five 7.0 or larger quakes about every 180 years. This ended in the early 20th century when authorities stopped massive amounts of Colorado River water from periodically flooding the into this sub-sea level desert basin. Such floods used to regularly trigger major quakes and relieve building seismic pressure but the last big earthquake on the southern San Andreas was about 325 years ago. Dangerous new fault branches that could trigger a 7.8 quake have recently been discovered under the Salton Sea.
A geothermal energy plant taps deep underground heat from the southern San Andreas Fault rift zone near the Salton Sea on July 5 near Calipatria, California. Scientists have discovered that human-created changes effecting the Salton Sea appear to be the reason why California's massive "Big One" earthquake is more than 100 years overdue and building up for the greatest disaster ever to hit Los Angeles and Southern California.
(
David McNew/Getty Images
)

Take Two translates the day’s headlines for Southern California, making sense of the news and cultural events that affect our lives. Produced by Southern California Public Radio and broadcast from October 2012 – June 2021. Hosted by A Martinez.

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The geothermal power plants near the Salton Sea might not just produce electricity. A recent study published in the journal "Science" shows that they could also be causing thousands of earthquakes.

For more, we're joined by Emily Brodsky, professor of Earth & Planetary Sciences at UC Santa Cruz and the lead author of the paper.