Earthquake strikes US: California, Oklahoma, Texas and Nebraska hit in quick succession

A STRING of powerful earthquakes have rocked the west and central US with several of them hitting near to the dreaded RING OF FIRE.

Some eight earthquakes have rocked the United States in quick succession, all of which have taken place on April 9.

The strongest of the earthquakes, and also the most recent, came in Perry, Oklahoma, when a 4.3 magnitude tremor hit the central US state.

However, there have been no reports of damage to buildings in the area.

People took to social media to share their experience, with one writing: “Another earthquake in Oklahoma, shaking us awake just now!”

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Earthquake strikes US: California, Oklahoma, Texas and Nebraska hit in quick succession .

USGS

The strongest earthquake came in Oklahoma.

Other people share similar views, with Twitter user Arianna saying that she believes this is a sign that a bigger earthquake is coming.

She wrote: “All these little earthquakes just leading up to the big earthquake soon that destroys us”.

Since midnight, there have also been earthquakes in Alaska, Nebraska, Texas and three in California.

Both California and Alaska sit on the deadly Ring of Fire – the largest and most active fault line in the world, stretching from New Zealand, all around the east coast of Asia, over to Canada and the USA and all the way down to the southern tip of South America – which causes more than 90 percent of the world’s earthquakes.

Also in California sits the San Andreas fault, where two huge plates meet.

This has also caused many earthquakes over the years, including the recent 5.3 magnitude tremor striking just off the Pacific coast on April 6, rattling Santa Barbara and Los Angeles.

Researchers believe that the San Andreas fault is overdue the ‘Big One’ – a potentially catastrophic earthquake which could cause widespread destruction in the southwest of the US.

Last year, Robert Graves, a research geophysicist at the USGS, said that the Big One could be overdue by 10 years.

He told Raw Story: “The San Andreas fault in southern California last had a major quake in 1857 (magnitude 7.9).”Studies that have dated previous major offsets along the fault trace show that there have been about 10 major quakes over the past 1,000-2,000 years.

“The average time between these quakes is about 100-150 years.”

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The San Andreas runs through California>

There is a 1-in-20 chance of Thursday’s quake leading to a bigger one in the next few weeks, John Vidale, director of the Southern California Earthquake Center at USC told the Los Angeles Times.

He said: “A 5.3 could be damaging if it was right under our feet.

“It’s right on the edge of being an earthquake that could be dangerous.It’s a reminder that we need to be ready in the future.”