John,

I received an e-mail this evening from a person concerned about some statements he heard from someone down his way and it's a bit disconcerting and I was wondering if you could answer these scientifically. It's not an area I know anything about..... Thanks .... Petra

According to some guy, there is a point in the San Andreas fault system some 12 miles southeast of Palm Springs, CA that has enough strain accumulated to unleash an earthquake claimed to be at least 9.0 magnitude based on a 60 foot offset when the fault at this location breaks loose. The location is generally in the center of a triangle between La Quinta, Cahuilla Hills, and Pinyon Flats, towards La Quinta and may correspond to Mt. Martinez at the head of La Quinta Cove.

The second piece of suspicious information is that the earthquakes last summer south of the Salton Sea actually extended into the magnitude 6 and 7 range but were hushed up by the Salton Sea authority so that monies could be appropriated to save the lake.