Could An Earthquake Happen In El Paso? UTEP Seismologist Weighs In

Japan’s magnitude 8.9 earthquake registered half a world away in the ‘Sun City.’

Seismic equipment at UTEP’s Kidd Observatory was able to pick up the quake, according to Dr. Aaron Velasco, Chair of the university’s Geological Sciences Department and seismologist.

Velasco told ABC-7 he awoke Friday morning to 40-50 missed messages from work. Right away, he says, he knew something major had happened.

“An 8.9 magnitude is an enormous earthquake,” he said.

Dr. Velasco studies how quakes are connected to one another.

When asked about the chances of a major seismic event in El Paso, Velasco hesitated to speculate.

He said the Pacific Northwest from northern California to Seattle is really considered the earthquake danger zone in the United States.

“The earthquake hazard in El Paso is not zero,” he said. “It’s not similar to California but it’s not zero. How we have evidence of that is the Franklin Mountains.”

Velasco said the borderland is part of what is known as the ‘Rio Grande Rift.'”

“The continent of the U.S. is splitting apart,” he explained. “Over time, we’ll have an ocean here.”

Velasco said that separation will happen over a very, very long period of time, adding the last major earthquake in El Paso’s region was a magnitude 7.4 in Sonora, Mexico in 1887.