Which makes perfect sense here in Los Angeles, since this city of many millions of people \u2013 10 million in LA County alone \u2013 lies just a few short miles from the San Andreas Fault<\/a>. However, it’s not actually this fault that seems to be providing all the terror\/excitement at the moment.<\/p>\n The most recent LA quakes have been because of movement in the Whittier Fault. \u00a0Image: JPL<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n The last major earthquake here was in January 1994. Centered in Northridge in the San Fernando Valley, it had a magnitude of 6.7 and duration of approximately 20 seconds. It happened at 4:40am so thankfully most of the freeways were empty.<\/p>\n Then, yesterday there was another quake here. At about 6:30am the ground shook for about six or seven seconds and measured 4.4 in magnitude. [Note:\u00a0no one seems to say ‘Richter Scale’ anymore\u00a0\u2013 it’s a bit too\u00a0retro<\/em>.]<\/p>\n This one was centered in Beverly Hills and the internet practically exploded with tweets and updates and clips of early morning daytime TV presenters freaking out live on air as the studio sets shook around them. Google it, it\u2019s quite entertaining.<\/p>\n But all this recent talk of tremors has inevitably re-raised the point that\u2019s not \u201cif\u201d but rather a case of \u201cwhen\u201d. And depending on who you ask, some say that lots of little quakes are a good thing since it\u2019s meant to relieve the pressure building up deep underground and others utterly disagree and say instead that lots of small shakes are an indication that something much bigger is on its way.<\/p>\n If you visit\u00a0earthquaketrack.com<\/a>, or follow it on Twitter, you\u2019ll realise just how many earthquakes there are each week, albeit teeny-tiny ones that you\u2019d never notice, but still.<\/p>\n Plus of course I live in a prime tsunami zone.<\/p>\n The United States Geological Survey recently undertook a study as part of National Tsunami Preparedness Week and, using a magnitude 9.2 Alaskan earthquake that struck 50 years ago and caused California’s largest-recorded tsunami event, they concluded that those living in low-lying areas like Huntington Beach and Venice Beach were most at risk.<\/p>\n Guess I should include some inflatable armbands in that bag. And, according to\u00a0helpful info<\/a>\u00a0provided by the City of Los Angeles, bottles of water, breathing masks, first aid kit, flashlight, sleeping bag, duct tape and batteries.<\/p>\n![\"Los](\"https:\/\/scottsnowden.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/San-Andreas-Fault.jpg\")