California Earthquake Didn’t Hit, Carry On As You Were

News was buzzing over the last few days about California getting hit by an earthquake. Depending on who you believed, it was because a dutch group predicted a catastrophic California earthquake, or Warner Bros. just got really creative with their advertising for their latest movie, San Andreas.

According to the doomsayers, Dutch group Ditrianum would accurately predict a California earthquake to hit sometime on May 28 or 29. The leader of this group based his predictions on a specific planetary alignment which was currently occurring. Depending on who you listened to, this California earthquake would register as either 8.8 or 9.8 on the Richter scale.

Also occurring on May 28, however, was the release date of Warner Bros. epic disaster movie, San Andreas. This movie also revolved around a California earthquake. One so devastating as to cause a massive tsunami to envelop California. The movie stars Dwayne Johnson as a rescue-chopper pilot who is trying to reach his daughter who is caught in the midst of the California earthquake.

Since the world has gone crazy over a possible California earthquake, it seems the earthquake early warning system has falsely reported several earthquakes in California. According to CBC San Francisco, two California earthquakes were recently reported. These earthquakes, measuring 4.8 and 5.5 were reportedly recorded at San Simeon and Brooktrails early on Saturday morning. The earthquake early warning system that involves the United States Geological Survey has many media outlets — including Twitter — set up with them to send out automated messages to alert the public. As a result of these erroneous reports, the U.S. Geological Survey has had to issue retraction notices in relation to the “California earthquakes.”

As well as all the recent excitement surrounding possible California earthquakes, on Friday a group were actually postulating what to do in the event of a devastating California earthquake. The Earthquake Research Affiliate gathered at Caltech to talk about how California would survive a massive earthquake. Among other things, the group discussed the very early alert system that resulted in the two false alarms over the weekend. Doug Given from U.S. Geological Survey spoke of the ShakeAlert system.

“The system is improving over time and we are building things out, but we are limited by resources, which is a fancy way of saying cash.”

While there has been money trickling in to help develop this system further, it seems none of that funding has come from California. The two California earthquake false alarms this weekend just may change that now.

What do you think, will there ever be a California earthquake like that predicted in the movie San Andreas? Let us know you thoughts by commenting below.

[Image credit: Warner Bros.]