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Over the last few days, I have been experiencing little creaks and rattles in the house, and my paintings are all crooked. This semi-swarm, or perhaps even a swarm, is well north of the great San Andreas fault, under Inspiration Point, at Joshua Tree National Park, but a bit to the south-east.
Many associate this series of micro-quakes with the geothermal volcanic system of the Salton Trough, and Salton Buttes Volcano.
Intuitively, and via watching patterns in swarms and micro-quakes, I see a connection between the Salton Trough system and Covington Flat Volcano, and a connection between the Salton Trough spreading zone and the Landers spreading zone. That being said, I see this current swarm as activity associated with the connection between the two rifting zones.
Eventually there will be a series of earth movements and venting events that will open up this area, and making for a truly connected rifting zone, and eventually, over a period of ten million years - we'll possibly see California completely broken off from the mainland, as Baja is broken off of Mainland Mexico.
Take a look at the map from the USGS and note the swarm just north of Indio.
