How Freaked Out Should We Be About All These Small Earthquakes?

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KQED

News, Politics, News Commentary

4.2 • 726 Ratings

🗓️ 15 December 2025

⏱️ 52 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

There have been more than 150 small earthquakes in San Ramon in the past month. In one rattling day alone there were at least 19 of magnitude 2.0 or higher. Do all these little earthquakes mean the big one is coming soon? Or maybe that the big one is not coming soon? Seismologists say it means neither. But we’re bringing together earthquake scientists to answer all your questions and tell us the latest in the science of quakes. Guests: Richard Allen, director, Berkeley Seismology Lab Annemarie Baltay, research geophysicist with the Earthquake Hazards Program, USGS Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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0:00.0	Support for KQED podcasts comes from Earth Justice. As the largest environmental law organization in the country,
0:08.4	Earth Justice has more than 200 full-time lawyers who fight for a healthy environment. They wield the power of the law to protect public lands,
0:17.7	defend your right to clean air and water water and combat climate change. Earth Justice fights
0:23.3	in court because the Earth needs a good lawyer. Learn more about how you can get involved and become a
0:29.4	supporter at earthjustice.org. Sponsorship of this podcast comes from Stanford Summer Session,
0:36.9	allowing visiting students to study at Stanford for an academic term.
0:40.9	Learn more at summer.standford.edu.
0:45.0	From KQED.
0:48.4	Welcome to Forum. I'm Alexis Madrigal.
0:51.0	There's nothing quite like a little earthquake very close to your house to
0:55.3	remind you to check your emergency supplies. My family lives about a mile from the Hayward
1:00.3	fall, so we pretty regularly get little 3.0-ish quakes that are just strong enough to make you
1:06.6	think, is this the big one? But then over fast enough to not be too stressful. That said,
1:12.1	what's happening out in San Ramon right now is something different. On a recent day, they had
1:17.7	19 quakes of 2.0 magnitude or higher. Here to discuss what's going on out there. Take all
1:23.9	your earthquake questions. We're joined by Richard Allen, director of the Berkeley Seismological Laboratory
1:28.6	and a professor in the Department of Earth
1:30.6	and Planetary Science at UC Berkeley.
1:32.7	Welcome.
1:33.4	Thanks.
1:33.7	Great to be here.
1:34.7	And we've got Anne-Marie Balte,
	...

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