The Pacific Ring of Fire has been rocked by a cluster of massive earthquakes in the last 48 hours, sparking fears that “the big one” could soon hit the West Coast of the United States, The Sun reported.
The U.S. Geological Survey recorded at least 70 quakes in the region over the last two days, 16 of which registered 4.5 or above on the Richter scale.
On Wednesday night, Alaska was struck by a magnitude 6.3 earthquake, which was felt 70 miles from where it occurred in the remote Andreanof Islands, The Associated Press reported.
Overnight on Tuesday, an earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.2 struck off the coast of south-central Oregon, CBS affiliate KOIN reported. The USGS said the quake was centered more than 170 miles west of Coos Bay, about 220 miles southwest of Portland.
No warning about "the big one" has been issued but the series of shakes have left many wondering if they were a precursor to the supposed long-overdue massive earthquake that is expected to inevitably tear through California or Oregon.
Since Sunday, the swath of quakes rattled Venezuela, Indonesia, Bolivia, Japan and Fiji, which was struck by five earthquakes above magnitude 4.5 since Monday morning, The Sun noted.
Venezuela and Trinidad were smashed by a 7.3 quake while the Pacific Ocean close to Fiji and Tonga saw an 8.2 magnitude earthquake.
Roughly 90 percent of all earthquakes occur along the Ring of Fire, which spans 25,000-miles and comprises a series of volcanoes and sites of seismic activity around the edges of the Pacific Ocean, National Geographic reported.
The region has seen catastrophic earthquakes over the years, and seismologists have been warning that California is due for a massive earthquake that could cause widespread damage, USA Today reported.
Earthquake fears have also been raised for the Cascadia subduction zone which runs for seven hundred miles off the coast of the Pacific Northwest, beginning near Cape Mendocino, California, continuing along Oregon and Washington, and terminating around Vancouver Island, Canada, The New Yorker magazine reported.
Recently, scientists found that a major earthquake in Los Angeles could cause abrupt sinking of land, potentially below sea level, probably instantaneously.
When the “big one” could strike is anybody’s guess, but Peggy Hellweg, a seismologist at the University of California, Berkeley, forecast a 99.9 percent chance that a “damaging” quake measuring 6.7 or greater would hit “somewhere in California in the next 30 years.”
Richard Aster, a professor of geophysics at Colorado State University, said these concerns were valid.
“The earthquake situation in California is actually more dire than people who aren’t seismologists like myself may realize,” he said, according to The New York Post.
“Although many Californians can recount experiencing an earthquake, most have never personally experienced a strong one. For major events, with magnitudes of seven or greater, California is actually in an earthquake drought.”
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.