Caltech

The Elsinore fault zone is actually one of the largest in Southern California, according to Caltech, but “in historical times, has been one of the quietest.”

The fault is capable of generating a magnitude 7.8 earthquake, said seismologist Lucy Jones, a Caltech research associate.

Complete with chalkboard-like scientific diagrams, the vehicle once belonged to Richard Feynman, the late Nobel Prize-winning Caltech physicist.

Southern California, in all of 2024, had 15 seismic sequences that included at least one quake that had a magnitude of 4.0 or stronger, said Lucy Jones, a seismologist and Caltech research associate.

In 2021, Caltech agreed to pay over $25,000 to the Department of the Interior to cover the costs of repairing damage caused by a faculty member and students who drilled into a rock face roughly three feet from a petroglyph.