Did California's small earthquakes cause Mexico's big one?
PALM SPRINGS, Calif. — A series of earthquakes plagued Southern California in the past 30 days. Then on Tuesday, a 7.1-magnitude temblor rocked Mexico City. Does this mean The Big One could hit the Golden State next?
Experts say no, reiterating that earthquakes happen without warning and it is still impossible to predict the big one.
"(Magnitude 3) quakes happen somewhere in the world every few mins. 6 in SoCaL last week. No connection to Mexico," seismologist Lucy Jones said in a barrage of tweets following Mexico's earthquake.
It was centered near the Puebla state town of Raboso, about 76 miles southeast of Mexico City. At least 226 were killed in the earthquake, which occurred exactly 32 years after the 1985 quake that ravaged the city.
The quake followed the Sept. 7 magnitude 8.1 earthquake that destroyed a large part of Juchitan and killed dozens of people.
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Tuesday's earthquake was preceded by about 12 hours by a magnitude 3.6 earthquake that was centered west of Los Angeles in Westwood.
In the past 30 days, there have been about 10 small earthquakes near the Coachella Valley. They were as far southeast as the Salton Sea's southern end and as far northeast as Big Bear.
The quakes were as small as magnitude 2.5 and as large as magnitude 3.4, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
Nearly 2,000 miles separate Westwood from Mexico City, and Jones said it was impossible for the earlier earthquake to have trigger the other.
"A (magnitude) 3.6 can only trigger quakes within a few miles," Jones tweeted.
On the heels of Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, some theorists brought up the age-old idea that weather causes earthquakes.
Experts quickly shot down the notion, adding that at least 95% of earthquakes happen when earth movement shifts the crust, which is made up of plates.
"We’re all thinking about hurricanes these days, but they’re just not related (to earthquakes)," said Don Blakeman, a geophysicist with the USGS. "We have never seen any connection between the weather or the seasons or anything astronomical."
He surmised the weather theory is popular among those who haven't studied earthquakes, but are eager to find reasons why they occur.
Nonetheless, some experts haven't exactly ruled out the idea that weather influences earthquakes.
A group reported in 2013 that Hurricane Irene, which traversed the East Coast in 2011, may have triggered 700 additional aftershocks after the magnitude 5.8 Virginia earthquake.
"I think that it is too early to draw the conclusion that earthquakes and weathers are not related," Zhigang Peng, a Georgia Institute of Technology geophysics professor who led the 2013 research, said Tuesday.
He said fluctuating water levels may influence ground activity throughout the year, and extreme weather events may cause stress to the earth.
"Hence, I believe that this topic is an active area of research, and the jury is still out," Peng said.