Geologist warns megaquake could hit West Coast within four years due to Pacific plate shifts.

A string of powerful tremors along the Pacific Ocean's Ring of Fire has set off a chain reaction that threatens to unleash a historic disaster on America's West Coast soon. Geophysicist Stefan Burns told the Daily Mail that clear warning signs point to megaquakes recently shaking Asia now shifting across the Pacific Plate as the massive tectonic structure tries to find balance again. This movement raises the odds of a huge seismic event hitting California, Oregon, Washington and Alaska, with Burns saying a devastating rupture could happen within the next four years. He added: 'We are in this time period where we can expect more earthquake activity in California because there's like a 35-year rhythm there.

The last big rhythm felt like it belonged in the eighties or nineties. Then came Napa in 2014 with a magnitude 6.0 shock, followed by Ridgecrest in 2019 at magnitude 7.1. Now we are looking at Ukiah-Willits in 2026 hitting magnitude 5.6. By the time we get to 2030, California could be ready for a massive event.

Two huge tremors just hit the US side of the Ring of Fire recently. A magnitude 5.2 quake rattled Alaska's border with Canada on July 16. Then, on July 17, a monstrous magnitude 7.3 earthquake struck near the coast of Chiapas, Mexico. These major disturbances happened after at least twelve earthquakes stronger than magnitude 7 were recorded on the western side of the Ring of Fire over the last year alone. That western zone includes Russia, Japan, the Philippines, and Indonesia.

We have all this activity in the Western Pacific right now, so there is a precedent for it to come back and perhaps finally activate here, Burns explained. The Pacific Ring of Fire has seen more than a dozen major earthquakes along its western side since July 2025, when a megaquake near Kamchatka was detected in Russia. A picture from the movie San Andreas gives an idea of the carnage that could be caused if this ring ignites fully.

For the whole plate to continue doing what it is doing, Burns noted, California and Cascadia are super overdue. They have been waiting for a long time. We do not know exactly what will happen, but everything is ready, he warned. The Ring of Fire is a 25,000-mile arc circling the Pacific Ocean. It holds seventy-five percent of the world's active volcanoes and suffers frequent earthquakes throughout Southeast Asia, Japan, Russia, and Alaska's Aleutian Islands.

Burns said the magnitude 8.8 megaquake that struck Kamchatka on July 29, 2025 triggered a seismic chain reaction across the entire Ring of Fire. This massive quake released huge amounts of built-up stress. That release set off many other faults, causing multiple magnitude 7 earthquakes, dozens of magnitude 6 quakes, and hundreds of smaller ones on that side of the Pacific Plate.

According to Burns, a popular commentator who focuses on earthquake science online, the Pacific Plate is like one giant, mostly rigid piece of the Earth's crust that must stay balanced. Since so much movement has already happened on the western side, the plate now needs to catch up with more earthquakes on the eastern side, including along the West Coast of the US and South America, to release its remaining stress and keep moving properly. We have had tons of activity in the Western Pacific, and I do see it moving more towards the East, he said. He sees that really hitting South America and North America pretty strongly.

Burns told the Daily Mail there were clear warning signs in California right now, particularly around the Garlock Fault near Los Angeles. A recent earthquake struck directly at its junction with the infamous San Andreas Fault. This quake was concerning because the Garlock acts as a major stress transfer point in Southern California. It might signal that the region is actively loading up for a major rupture along the 800-mile-long San Andreas fault system.

Data from the US Geological Survey showed the July 2025 megaquake in Russia struck about 84 miles east-southeast of Kamchatka, marking the sixth strongest earthquake ever recorded. Burns said several large-scale changes inside the Earth may be contributing to the recent increase in earthquake activity along the Ring of Fire.

One key factor is the Chandler wobble. This is Earth's natural, 433-day wobble as it spins on its axis. It mysteriously disappeared in the 2010s and is now returning. This wobble affects how stress builds up on faults around the world. A 2025 study published in the Journal of Geodesy confirmed that the Chandler wobble became strangely weak and almost disappeared between 2015 and 2020. It began returning around 2021, but with a mysterious 180-degree phase shift which made it spin in the opposite direction.

Burns explained that when scientists look at past earthquakes in California and throughout the world, a clear pattern emerges where earthquakes were more likely to happen at certain times that match the 433-day Chandler wobble cycle. The wobble appeared to add a little extra push or stress on faults at regular intervals, making larger earthquakes slightly more likely to erupt during those periods.

The Earth's magnetic pole was also found to be moving extremely fast across the North Sea during the 2010s. Burns believes this signals changes happening deep in the planet's mantle that affect plate tectonics. A massive magnitude 7.3 earthquake struck along the Pacific Ring of Fire near the coast of Chiapas, Mexico on July 17.

Burns also theorized that the sun plays a major role in causing earthquakes as well. During periods of lower solar activity, he noted that earthquakes tend to cluster because changes in solar radiation and plasma affect electric currents inside the planet. These changes make faults more likely to slip and release seismic stress. When you get a solar flare, that is charging the ionosphere, Burns said.

You are creating this push and pull effect with plasma while generating electric currents deep within Earth's subsurface," Burns explained. He noted that the sun acts as the primary energetic agent, loading our planet with power. Almost every bit of energy here comes from that distant star. We observe that high magnitude earthquakes generally cluster around specific space weather influences.

New scientific research suggests the San Andreas Fault and the nearby Cascadia Subduction Zone off Oregon could rupture together in a single massive event. This means a major tremor on one fault might trigger or combine with the other, creating an even bigger disaster. Nothing is guaranteed and the exact timing remains uncertain. Burns believed the United States had slightly more time before a megaquake erupts along the West Coast because patterns unfolding along the San Andreas were moving noticeably slower than what he observed prior to major quakes in Asia.