The Governor’s Office of Emergency Services said Southern California residents should remain on heightened alert until Tuesday for the increased possibility of a major earthquake. The warning comes in the wake of a series of small temblors deep under the Salton Sea, which is on the far Southern 800-mile-long San Andreas fault. Kelly Huston, the deputy director of crisis communications for the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services said Such warnings are typically issued once or twice a year. This latest alert was issued after 142 temblors hit last week starting Monday near Bombay Beach. Those quakes ranged from a magnitude between 1.4 to 4.3, the U.S. Geological Survey said. The temblors were not felt over a very large area, but they have garnered intense interest — and concern — among seismologists. The quakes marked only the third time since sensors were installed there in 1932 that the area had seen such a swarm, and this one had more earthquakes than the events of 2001 and 2009.
