New research from the California Institute of Technology (CalTech) has revealed that up to ten times more earthquakes strike California than originally thought, officials said.

The new study revealed that on average, Southern California experiences 495 earthquakes per day, or an earthquake every three minutes.

Scientists have long known that earthquakes increase in number as they decrease in strength. For every whole-number drop in magnitude, there are 10 times as many earthquakes, according to officials.

The recent effort by CalTech resulted in a catalog of almost 2 million earthquakes between 2008 and 2017 — 10 times more than the Southern California Seismic Network (SCSN)’s current catalog of quakes for the area, which recorded just under 180,000 earthquakes during the same time period.

For residents of an area like Santa Clarita, which lies less than 30 miles from the San Andreas Fault and was severely affected by the 1994 Northridge earthquake, this could be worrying news for some.

Zachary Ross, a scientist at the California Institute of Technology who led the research team that made the discovery, revealed that the team managed to discover these “hidden” tremors through a system referred to as “template matching.”

As earthquakes that originate from the same area should have a similar seismological signature, the signatures of larger earthquakes can be used to identify smaller quakes with matching waveforms, officials said.

Template matching reportedly works best in regions with closely-spaced seismometers, as recorded events generally overlap with other earthquakes within a radius of 1 to 2 miles, according to the researchers.

Due to the heavy workload that it places on computer systems required to analyze the information, the research has been limited to much smaller data sets in the past, measuring only days or weeks.

For the current project, the researchers relied on an array of 200 graphics processing units (GPUs) that worked for around 90 days straight to scan the SCSN catalog, detect “hidden” earthquakes and verify their findings.

The team also revealed a number of tiny foreshocks that had not been noticed before, which hopefully may provide insight into the mystery of how earthquakes begin.

Anyone living in Santa Clarita is encouraged to have an emergency kit prepared with basic items that could be needed after an earthquake, according to officials.

The kit should include:

• A three-day supply of food for the whole family
• At least three gallons of water
• A set of clean clothes and closed-toed shoes
• A three-day supply of any medications, and an extra pair of eyeglasses or contacts
• An extra set of house and car keys
• Cash and copies of important documents
• A first aid kit
• Solar, battery, or manual operated flashlights and radios
• Extra batteries
• Pet food and water.

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