Death Valley Califonia Earthquakes

On December 2nd, 2008 a small swarm of earthquakes occurred near Death Valley. The largest was a magnitude 4.1. However, in a region with such a violent past, any activity is worth noting.




In October of 2008, I just happened to be traveling south on highway 395 heading to Death Valley, California. Traveling south on historic highway 395 is amazing in many ways, not the least of which, is all the earthquake and volcano related features visible to those with an interest for such things


On March 26th, 1872 a violent magnitude 7.4 earthquake occurred near Lone Pine that killed 27 people and leveled all but two building. Even more astonishing, in just a few minutes an entire block of the Sierra Nevada’s raised 20 vertical feet


To help put that in perspective, one resource I found suggested that a single 12,000 ft mountain would weigh about 17,250,000,000 tons or 34,500,000,000,000 pounds! The Sierra Nevada is a range, not a single mountain and therefore its weight is inconceivable. Another source suggested that if you drilled under the mountain and buried the biggest nuclear warhead ever made underneath and set it off, the mountain wouldn’t even quiver and there would be no noticeable release of radiation or heat into the environment.


Simply put, earthquakes and volcanoes are powerful beyond comprehension. It is therefore, very humbling to travel through the western United States and see chapter after chapter of both types of events played out in regular, albeit unpredictable intervals. Those forces could at any moment decide to re-sculpture the face of an entire region.


Take Ubehebe crater in Death Valley for example. A mere 2000 years ago (there are trees older than that in California) an eruption occurred that was possibly more powerful than the Mt. St. Helens eruption.


So when I read in the news, statements like, “There have been a dozen earthquakes of magnitude-3.0 or above in the area since Nov. 25, 2008” and "There's something hot down there and it's heating up water", well I get a little excited. Is there another Ubehebe event on the horizon? Will it happen in my lifetime? I guess the facts would trend towards the answer being no, but odds are a tricky business, in that a long shot can happen any day. Looks like I’ll be keeping my Google Alert for earthquakes active a little while longer.

Click here to view a virtual panarama image of Ubehebe Crater