You may not have felt the latest shakers, but the string of earthquakes in the local region has continued into Saturday when a 3.1-magnitude temblor struck at Pinnacles National Park, according to the United States Geological Survey.
The 3.1-magntude quake at 4:24 p.m. Saturday was the latest in a string of earthquakes in the region near Hollister that started Monday.
It is the 16th earthquake registered at 2.6-magnitude or above in or near San Benito County in that time frame. The biggest quake was a 4.2-magnitude temblor that struck near Tres Pinos, or 3.5 miles south-southeast of the Ridgemark Golf & Country Club, the nearest marker for USGS. The Tres Pinos area has experienced the brunt of the shaking, with 12 of the temblors registered by their distance south of Ridgemark. There hasn’t been any significant damage reported from any of the incidents.
Most of the quakes in the string of 16 have been relatively moderate, with 12 of them registering between magnitudes of 2.8 and 3.1, according to the USGS.
It is not completely unusual activity for San Benito County, where two major faults—the San Andreas and the Calaveras—run through the area. A similar string of moderate earthquakes shook near the same area of San Benito County in 2009. There is a belief among geologists that lighter earthquakes can ease pressure along fault lines, curtailing risks for a bigger event.
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