There’s no shortage of stunning cities in California. Take San Ramon, for instance, famed for its majestic green hills, its critical place in the Tri-Valley economic hub, and its wonderfully boastful tagline, “everyone loves it here.” Idyllic as it may seem, though, the city is troubled by earthquakes. While this is unsurprising for the Bay Area, which is renowned for such activity, San Ramon really does seem to experience more than most.
February 2, 2026, may have started like any other Monday morning in the city, but it would see something extraordinary: 75 earthquakes in one day. It was around 6:30 am when the first of the quakes struck, and it was quite the way to herald what was to come. Sue Wild, who lives in the city, told the San Francisco Chronicle that the impact “felt like a freight train was coming through the middle of the bed.” If you live in San Ramon or any region that’s prone to earthquakes, emergency supplies, like those sold at Harbor Freight, can be invaluable.
Earthquakes are not uncommon events, sadly. The British Geological Survey reports that even the United Kingdom, which isn’t exactly renowned for tectonic activity, records around 300 earthquakes each year. Even so, San Ramon’s single-day tally is extraordinary. It’s largely because of the geography of the area, a factor that influences the whole of the region’s vulnerability to earthquakes.
Why San Ramon is so vulnerable to earthquakes
The positioning of the continents and the movement patterns of tectonic plates mean that some areas are far more prone to earthquakes than others. Fault lines are cracks in the crust of the Earth from which the energy from plates impacting each other can escape. One of the most infamous on the planet is the San Andreas Fault. It’s more than ten miles deep in places, and runs for more than 650 miles along the surface. It is impacted by two tectonic plates, the North American Plate and the Pacific Plate, pushing back against each other. Continual movement, as in this case, reduces the pressure built up between the two plates, generally resulting in more frequent, but less intense and powerful, earthquakes. Given its vastness, it’s no surprise that this fault system incorporates a complex web of more minor ones, which combine into the broader San Andreas Fault system…