Californians warned of more quakes ahead

  Sally Ann Stewart;Jonathan T. Lovitt

  06/30/1992

  USA Today

  FINAL

  Page 01A

  (Copyright 1992)

  LANDERS, Calif. - Aftershocks rattled high desert communities Monday as a

  rash of earthquakes continued to plague southern California.

  More could be on the way.

  Thomas Heating, of the U.S. Geological Survey's lab in Pasadena, says there's a

  30%-50% chance of a quake magnitude 6 or more within a week.

  ``People should be prepared,'' Heating says.

  Sunday's back-to-back quakes are giving Heating a chance to study a new

  earthquake theory: that quakes release little of the Earth's stress.

  Standard theory says stress builds until a quake releases it.

  ``Traditionalists believe in a regular repeating cycle,'' Heating says. ``I'm

  suggesting the amount that the force or stress changes in an earthquake is

  relatively small.''

  If Heating's theory is true, methods of predicting earthquakes are years away.

  Seismologists can't explain the recent rash of shakers, but insist there's no quake

  season.

  That's not reassuring to Myron Koza, 55, who owns Big Bear's Wishing Well

  Motel.

  ``I'm losing $1,000 a day,'' he says, ``and July 4th is our busiest weekend of the

  summer.''

  Gov. Pete Wilson will seek federal aid as early as today.

  Damage in San Bernardino County is estimated at more than $16 million.

  In addition to hundreds of aftershocks from Sunday's quakes, a separate 5.6

  tremor hit 70 miles northwest of Las Vegas Monday and a 3.9 hit Pasadena about

  4 p.m. PT.