Hi All. I don’t know if this means anything or not, but there appears to be more quakes occurring in the area between the Coso Volcanic Fields and Mammoth Lakes since the Hector Mine quake. Some of the towns near by are Bishop, Big Pine, Independence, and Lone Pine and if memory serves me these are all within the Owens Valley region.
The quakes don’t seem to be centering in any one area, but sort of scattered from side to side and end to end. I’m sure there is stress in the area, but as to how much I have no idea. I would say however that there should be some considerable stress in the Owens Valley area as the last big quake associated with that area was in 1872 and was a 7.8M. Faulting occurred on the Owens Valley fault along a line of a few kilometers east of the Sierra Nevada escarpment. The faulting near Lone Pine involved both dip-slip and right-lateral components of movement. The largest amount of surface deformation was observed between the towns of Lone Pine and Independence, but fault scarps formed along a length of at least 160 kilometers - from Haiwee Reservoir, south of Olancha, to Big Pine; cracks formed in the ground as far north as Bishop. The largest horizontal displacement of 7 meters was measured on the fault scarps west of Lone Pine. The vertical offsets clearly were smaller, averaging about 1 meter with the downthrown block on the east.
I think the best observation would be to take note of any swarms that occur within the area between the Coso Volcanic Fields and Mammoth Lakes. At present there doesn’t seem to be any area that would qualify as a strong possibility. Take Care…Don in creepy town.