Researchers Warn the Salton Trough Could Host Next Big Quake

By Ed Joyce / Reporter, KPBS Public Broadcasting

Published November 20, 2007 at 2:45 PM PST

This story was published more than 17 years ago.

The next big earthquake in Southern California could come from an area just two hours east of San Diego. KPBS reporter Ed Joyce tells us about the dangers lurking underneath the Salton Sea.

The next big earthquake in Southern California could come from an area just two hours east of San Diego. KPBS reporter Ed Joyce tells us about the dangers lurking underneath the Salton Sea.

Across the bottom of the Salton Sea are scars and cracks. They're caused by the motion between two major faults -- the San Andreas and San Jacinto.

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Scripps Institution of Oceanography researchers say the Salton Trough region is one of the most tectonically active places in North America. Scripps geophysicist Graham Kent says the faults will likely produce the Big One -- but there's no way to predict when that will happen.

Kent : Some of these lesser faults might actually have the ability to trigger the big one. In particular the Extra fault which lies beneath the Salton Sea might have or hold the key into the next big one that ruptures.

He says that fault, called Extra, could be a potential trigger for a major quake on the San Andreas fault. That's one reason Kent and other scientists are using specialized sonar techniques to map the hidden fault lines beneath the Salton Sea. He says earthquakes have recurred at the sea roughly every 200 years for the last thousand years, but it's been 335 years since the last quake.

Ed Joyce, KPBS News.

Ed Joyce

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Ed Joyce was the environment reporter and afternoon news anchor for KPBS-FM. Before joining KPBS, he worked as an editor/columnist with Copley News Service in San Diego. Ed has an extensive background in newspaper, radio, web and TV journalism. After graduating with a B.A. in Communications from the University of Washington in Seattle, Ed began a career in broadcast journalism. His work has included stints in public broadcasting, commercial broadcasting and education -- working as an affiliate professor of communication and reporter at the University of Idaho and Washington State University in Pullman, Wash. During the past 20 years he has worked in radio, TV and print as a news reporter, anchor, writer, editor and producer. Along the way he has won numerous awards for general news reporting, newswriting, feature and issue reporting and breaking news reporting from The Associated Press, The Society of Professional Journalists, San Diego Press Club and other organizations. During the mid-1990s, while working for Oregon Public Broadcasting, he was a frequent contributor to National Public Radio, including a feature report on the memorial service for 14 U.S. Forest Service "hotshots" who died fighting a wildfire in Colorado (the crew was based in a central Oregon town). He’s also filed reports with Marketplace, KQED’s California Report and Climate Watch and with national and regional networks throughout the United States. At KPBS, Ed continues his contributions to National Public Radio and other national and regional news organizations. He has won awards from the Society of Professional Journalists and San Diego Press Club for his environmental reporting at KPBS-FM-TV and for producing and anchoring radio newscasts. In 2007 he was selected a National Press Foundation fellow for Understanding Violent Weather II program. The seminars were held at the National Weather Center in Norman, Okla. In 2008 he spoke at a UC San Diego conference on U.S. National Security as part of the school’s Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation. Ed led a discussion with the 18 foreign government officials and academics about the political debate over climate change. In 2010, Ed was elected to a three-year term on the board of the San Diego Press Club.

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