Important Takeaways:

• The Parkfield section of the San Andreas fault is sending mixed messages before a time of expected increased seismic risk.
• A section of the San Andreas fault where earthquakes occur regularly may give off a distinct signal before it trembles to life, new research finds. The signal hints at the opening and closing of cracks beneath the subsurface.
• This section of Faultline, known as Parkfield in Central California, shakes regularly about every 22 years. It last ruptured in 2004, so another earthquake may be imminent. However, the signal is not currently occurring at the fault segment, and the section isn’t behaving exactly like it did the last time it ruptured, according to a study published March 22 in the journal Frontiers in Earth Science.
• The differences might mean the next quake won’t happen right away, or they might mean that the epicenter of the quake will be different from 2004’s epicenter, which was just southeast of the tiny town of Parkfield. There will be no way to know until the next quake actually happens, said study lead author Luca Malagnini, the director of research at the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology in Italy.
• “We are waiting,” Malagnini told Live Science.

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