Earthquake swarms and a region-wide rotten egg smell recently reminded Southern California residents they live next to an active volcano field, tiny though it may be. At the time, scientists said the phenomena did not reflect changes in the magma chamber below the Salton Sea.
But now, researchers may need to revise estimates of the potential hazard posed by the Salton Buttes — five volcanoes at the lake’s southern tip. The buttes last erupted between 940 and 0 B.C., not 30,000 years ago, as previously thought, a new study detailed online Oct. 15 in the journal Geology reports.
The new age — which makes these some of California’s youngest volcanoes — pushes the volcanic quintuplets into active status. The California Volcano Observatory, launched in February by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), already lists the area as a high threat for future blasts.
“The USGS is starting to monitor all potentially active volcanoes in California, which includes the Salton Buttes,” said study author Axel Schmitt, a geochronologist at the University of California, Los Angeles. “With our results, I think this will further enhance the need to look into the system,” Schmitt told OurAmazingPlanet.
The buttes exist because California is tearing apart, forming new oceanic crust as magma wells up from below. The sinking Salton Trough is the landward extension of the Gulf of California, and marks the boundary between the Pacific and North America tectonic plates.
In August, an earthquake swarm shook the nearby town of Brawley. The USGS attributed the temblors to faults in the Brawley Seismic Zone. In September, a sulfurous stench emanated from the Salton Sea and wafted across the Inland Empire. The odor was tentatively linked to a fish die-off, but could also have been caused by volcanic gases, Stock said. –Yahoo News
I live right inside that red danger zone they got marked off there… Yikes!!! Last week, Dutchsinse did a video showing plumes of gas from two volcanoes inside Mexico, which were even closer to my house… Double Yikes!!!
I have also been practicing the back-stroke, for just in case one of those dams up stream from me ever blow. The Parker, Davis, Powell and a few others dams on the Colorado River, I might have to swim to the Baja Gulf hehe
With all the doomsday scenarios, I think they will re-evaluate anything and everything in order to make it sound like anything can happen in order to further implement their fear-mongering propaganda. But that’s just me.
This is WAY to close to home.
I’m not liking this at all.
Well, that must make us neighbors then! Yuma here
L.A., unfortunately.
But that’s not far enough away from the Salton Sea.
At least, not anymore, apparently.
I know it well, spent most of my life in Ventura County
I lived in Port Hueneme for a while in the mid 70’s.
That’s where I grew up at, Port Hueneme. I went to Bard elementary, Blackstock Jr High, and Hueneme High.
I only went to jail there.
I never went back after that.
Ah, yes… as the old saying goes “Ventura County: Come on Vacation, and Leave on Probation” haha
That was in ’74.
I wasn’t the sharpest tool in the shed back in those days.
For those interested in Underground bases and facilities:
“CALIFORNIA, SALTON SEA – Mountains adjacent to the Salton sea of S. California have been the site of reports of subterranean rock slides, and also legends concerning the ancient “seven caves” of the Aztecs which some believe lie below the area. source: Penny Harper; Salton Sea Naval facility.”
“The Salton Sea and surrounding basin sits over the San Andreas Fault, San Jacinto Fault, Imperial Fault Zone, and a “stepover fault” shear zone system. American researchers determined that previous flooding episodes from the Colorado River have been linked to earthquakes along the San Andreas Fault.”
Source: Wikipedia