Eight large earthquakes rock US in the space of one hour

EIGHT large earthquakes have hit the US in the space of an hour in the early hours of Wednesday morning as fears grow of a long overdue ‘big one’.

A 5.7 magnitude earthquake, followed by a series of aftershocks, struck near Nevada’s border with California the United States Geological Survey (USGS) said.

The largest temour struck at around 12:22am local time (8.22am GMT).

Shortly after a further seven quakes with magnitudes between 3-5.6 hit near Hawthorne, Nevada.

A number of people took to Twitter to spread the news what was happening as some where

Tony Lewis wrote: “3 major #earthquake’s in Nevada possible precursors for something big.”

“Ok. I’m up now. That last earthquake aftershock rocked my bed and window blinds,” a Twitter user named Amilee wrote.

Over the last ten days, there have been eight earthquakes with a magnitude of 3.0 or greater in the region, the LA Times has reported.

The news comes after scientists reportedly warned of a “double whammy” mega-earthquake that could destroy the west coast of the US.

Two fault lines off the coast of California has sparked fear of a huge earthquake, the Daily Star reported.

These fault lines, which have been described as “holding hands” could result in the biggest quake in nine decades according to experts.

The boffins have even more worrying observations saying that the region is totally unprepared to cope with the megaquake.

It is feared the 800 mile long San Andreas fault could shift causing a chain reaction of huge quakes down the US Pacific coastline.

In 1906 the biggest quake ever to strike the region hit just off the coast of California killing 3,000 people and decimating 80 per cent of San Francisco.

A major quake on the San Andreas would sever most lifelines in and out of southern California, preventing aid from reaching 20 million people and hampering recovery efforts, experts warn.

Often dubbed the “Big One” a hypothetical earthquake of magnitude 8 or greater that is expected to happen along the San Andreas fault.

Such a quake is expected to produce devastation to human civilisation covering a 50-100 mile around the quake zone, especially affecting areas like Palm Springs, Los Angeles and San Francisco.