Professor Dean Whitman, of the Department of Earth and Environment, studies earthquakes. He answers questions about the geophysics of the destructive event.

California sits on an active plate boundary where the Pacific and North American plates grind past each other, producing frequent earthquakes.

Twin earthquakes like those that ripped through the region are unusual but not unheard of. Scientists are already gathering ...

It appears the two big earthquakes in Venezuela that occurred in rapid succession may have involved two separate fault lines.

A series of earthquakes shook California over that last 24 hours, ranging in strength from 2.5 to 2.7 in magnitude, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS). No damage or injuries have ...

A swarm of at least a dozen earthquakes reaching up to magnitude 3.9 rattled San Ramon near San Francisco, the U.S. Geological Survey reports. The other quakes in the Saturday, Dec. 21, swarm ranged ...

Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. California’s ground is always moving. Most of the time, that movement is too small to notice. But the state sits on one of the ...

A swarm of at least six earthquakes reaching up to magnitude 2.9 rattled San Ramon near San Francisco, the U.S. Geological Survey reports. The other quakes in the Saturday, Dec. 13, swarm ranged from ...

California's ground is always moving. Most of the time, that movement is too small to notice. But the state sits on one of the most active seismic zones in the world, where constant shifts deep ...