Seismicity in the Northern Baja California region, Mexico: 1999-2024
Sismicidad en la región norte de Baja California, México: 1999-2024
J. Antonio Vidal-Villegas1
, Oscar A. Castro-Artola1,*, Rogelio Arce-Villa1, Luis A. Yegres-Herrera1, M. Alejandra Núñez-Leal1
1 Departamento de Sismología, División Ciencias de la Tierra, Centro de Investigación Científica y de Educación Superior de Ensenada (CICESE). Carretera Ensenada-Tijuana 3918, Zona Playitas, 22860. Ensenada, Baja California, México.
* Corresponding author:
(O. A. Castro-Artola) This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
How to cite this article:
Vidal-Villegas, J. A., Castro-Artola, O. A., Arce-Villa, R., Yegres-Herrera, L. A., & Núñez-Leal, M.A. (2026). Seismicity in the Northern Baja California region, Mexico: 1999-2024: Boletín de la Sociedad Geológica Mexicana, 78(2), A061125. https://doi.org/10.18268/BSGM2026v78n2A061125
Manuscript received: July 31, 2025. Corrected manuscript received: October 20, 2025. Manuscript accepted: October 27, 2025.
ABSTRACT
This study analyzes 25 years (1999-2024) of seismicity in Northern Baja California, a region characterized by the interaction between the Pacific and North American plates and subsidiary faults that also generate earthquakes. The main fault systems and their relationship to seismic activity are described, highlighting the April 4, 2010, Mw 7.2 El Mayor-Cucapah earthquake, which marked a shift in seismicity distribution and prompted the expansion and modernization of the Northwestern Mexico Seismic Network. Seismicity is examined across four zones: the Gulf of California, the Mexicali Valley-Laguna Salada, the Peninsular Ranges of Baja California, and the offshore northern coast of Baja California. Moderate-to-large earthquakes and spatial patterns linked to major faults are reported. The magnitude of completeness shows spatial variability: 1.6 in the Peninsular Ranges, 1.8 in Mexicali–Laguna Salada, 3.0 in the northern Gulf, and 2.0 offshore northern Baja California. Network upgrades, international collaborations, and the integration of subnetworks have improved earthquake detection and characterization, leading to a complete and more reliable seismic catalog.
Keywords: seismicity, Northern Baja California region, RESNOM, seismic networks.
RESUMEN
El estudio analiza la sismicidad del norte de Baja California durante 25 años (1999-2024), una región caracterizada por la interacción de las placas Pacífica y Norteamericana y por fallas subsidiarias que también generan sismos. Se describen los principales sistemas de fallas y su relación con la actividad sísmica, destacando el sismo de El Mayor-Cucapah (4 de abril de 2010, Mw 7.2,), que marcó un cambio en la distribución de la sismicidad y motivó la expansión y modernización de la Red Sísmica del Noroeste de México. El trabajo analiza la sismicidad por zonas: Golfo de California, Valle de Mexicali-Laguna Salada, Sierras Peninsulares de Baja California y la región oceánica frente a la costa norte. Se reportan eventos moderados a fuertes y patrones espaciales asociados a las principales fallas. Además, se determina la magnitud de completitud, que varía espacialmente: 1.6 en Sierras Peninsulares, 1.8 en Mexicali-Laguna Salada, 3.0 en el norte del Golfo y 2.0 en la región oceánica. La modernización de la red, la colaboración internacional y la integración de subredes han permitido mejorar la detección y caracterización de sismos, logrando catálogos más completos y confiables.
Palabras clave: sismicidad, región norte de Baja California, RESNOM, redes sísmicas.
1. Introduction
The Northern Baja California (NBC) region is located west of a section of the main boundary of two major tectonic plates: the Pacific and North American plates (Munguía and Vidal, 1991). The ongoing interaction between these two plates generates continuous seismicity in the NBC region. Additionally, subsidiary faults west of the plate boundary (Imperial and Cerro Prieto faults) also generate earthquakes (Brune et al., 1979; Lomnitz et al., 1970). Some of the subsidiary faults are indicated in Table 1 (San Miguel FaultVallecitos Fault, SMF-VF; Tres Hermanas Fault, TRF; Agua Blanca Fault, ABF; Sierra Juárez Fault, SJzF; San Pedro Mártir Fault, SPMF; Laguna Salada Fault, LSF; Cucapah Fault, CF). The following section explains an Mw 7.2 earthquake occurred on April 4, 2010, along the CF, LSF, and other faults that ruptured in a complex sequence (Teran, 2015).
The seismicity reporting in this study was made possible by the continuous operation of the Northwestern Mexico Seismic Network (RESNOM), one of the sub-networks operated by the Centro de Investigación Científica y de Educación Superior de Ensenada, Baja California (CICESE). Given the proximity of NBC to the USA-Mexico border, the Southern California Seismic Network, operated jointly by the California Institute of Technology (CALTECH) and the United States Geological Survey (USGS), also plays a key role in monitoring seismic activity. Earlier studies by Brune et al. (1979) and Munguía and Vidal (1991) described the fault systems and seismicity of the region over time. Continuing from this foundational work, this study focuses on seismicity in NBC over 25 years, spanning latitudes 30.0°–33.0° N and longitudes -114.0°–-117.5° W. The aims of the study are to describe patterns of seismicity, examine its association with the region’s main faults, and provide statistical information on the recorded earthquakes.
2. Improvement of the geographical coverage of Northwestern Mexico
Following the Mw 7.2 El Mayor-Cucapah (EMC) earthquake on April 4, 2010, financial support was obtained to improve and expand seismic monitoring in the NBC region. This funding was provided by the former National Council of Science and Technology of Mexico (CONACYT) through the Baja California government. In addition, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) donated equipment to support these efforts. These resources helped not only to expand the geographical coverage but also to upgrade the instrumentation, equipping each station with broadband sensors and accelerometers (Table 2). Significant advances were also made in data processing: the network transitioned from manual workflows using in-house software to automated systems such as Earthworm and ANSS Quake Monitoring System (AQMS; Hartog et al., 2020). As a result of this progress, new collaborations were established with other seismic agencies. Since 2011, RESNOM has collaborated with the National Seismological Service of Mexico (SSN), the Southern California Seismic Network (SCSN), and the USGS to share data in real time (Vidal-Villegas et al., 2018).
After 2011, important changes occurred in the organization of the different subnetworks operated by CICESE (Vidal-Villegas et al., 2022). Since mid-2015, the various subnetworks: the Northwest Mexico Seismic Network (RESNOM), the Northwest Mexico Accelerograph Network (RANM, nowadays called RANOM), the Gulf of California Broadband Seismological Network (RESBAN), the Baja California Urban Network (RAUBC), the Northwest Mexico Geodetic Network (REGNOM), and the La Paz Seismological Network (RSLP, nowadays part of RESNOM) were integrated into a coordinated system called the CICESE Seismological Network (RSC) (Vidal-Villegas et al., 2018). Additionally, an advisory council was established to help ensure the proper functioning of the RSC. Some of their duties include planning the upgrading and updating of the network, approving the annual work plans for each subnetwork, and establishing procedures to exchange data with other seismic agencies, among others. In the following sections, an analysis and discussion of the seismicity of NBC are presented. When relevant, reference will be made to the periods before (1999 to April 2010) and after (May 2010 to December 2024) the EMC earthquake.
3. Seismicity
The RESNOM and USGS earthquake catalogs provide information on the location and magnitude of recorded earthquakes. The USGS catalog includes locations supplied by the SCSN. The errors in the RESNOM catalog are mainly 2 km in epicentral location and 0.2 units in magnitude. The combined catalog includes approximately 85 827 earthquakes from January 1999 to December 2024. Below, we provide a brief overview of the seismicity in northwestern Mexico, supported by seismicity maps for the period 1999-2024. This is followed by a discussion of the seismic activity organized by geographic zones, moving from east to west: Northern Gulf of California (NGC), Mexicali Valley-Laguna Salada (MV-LS), Peninsular Ranges of Baja California (PRBC), and offshore of Northern Baja California (O-NBC) (Figure 1).
4. A general overview
The operation of the RSC has allowed us to expand the seismic monitoring across northwestern Mexico and locate and compute magnitudes in real time. Before discussing the seismicity according to the four mentioned zones, we provide a general overview of the recorded and reported seismicity. Regarding the location of seismicity, we illustrate the distribution of earthquake epicenters plotted as a function of latitude (Figure 2A) and longitude (Figure 2B). For a discussion about seismicity regarding the evolution of seismic station installations, please refer to Vidal-Villegas (2022). Each Figure has a color scale representing reported magnitudes in RESNOM and USGS catalogs. In the latitudinal axis, seismicity concentrates between magnitudes 1.0 and around 2.3, especially in the distance range between 32.5° and 33.0° N. This pattern results from integrating data from the RESNOM and the USGS catalogs, improving coverage of the border region. The combined earthquake catalog resulted from using ZMAP (Wiemer, 2001), a MATLAB-based set of tools for analyzing earthquake catalogues released in 1994 and updated in 2018. The RESNOM catalog was taken as the primary dataset and complemented with events from the USGS catalog, improving coverage in the border region. Duplicate events were identified and removed using the following matching criteria: epicentral distance ≤ 10 km, focal depth difference ≤ 10 km, origin time difference ≤ 7 s, and magnitude difference ≤ 1.0 unit. These criteria were selected after testing multiple parameter combinations. After merging the catalog and removing the duplicated earthquakes, the final unified catalog comprised 85,827 events.
Continuing with the seismicity overview, between latitudes 31.0° and 32.5° N, the events are primarily associated with the PRBC and MV-LS zone. Before 2010, the minimum reported magnitudes were around 1.9; after 2010, the detection threshold improved to around 1.0. Along the longitude axis, seismicity of the NGC (light blue color in Figure 1) and O-NBC (blue color in Figure 1) becomes more apparent. In the Gulf region, there is a noticeable lack of reported events before 2012 in the RESNOM catalog, with the lowest magnitude during that period around 3.0. Most events reported between longitudes -116.3° and -117.5° W (O-NBC) are lowmagnitude earthquakes (1.0–2.5); nevertheless, two outstanding earthquakes occurred in 2013, reaching magnitudes around 5.0. Figure 2C shows the magnitude of the recorded seismicity during the study period, in which the EMC earthquake and its aftershocks are evident. Most of the aftershocks lasted about 1.5 years. For this computation, the ZMAP software was used. After this time, the number of aftershocks decreases sharply; however, they may still occur sporadically.
5. Seismicity before and after the 2010 El Mayor–Cucapah earthquake
In the MV–LS zone, seismicity before the 2010 event was distributed between 32.2–32.5° N and 115–115.4° W, mainly east of the Sierra Cucapah and extending south-westward toward Sierra El Mayor (Figure 3A). After the EMC earthquake, seismicity became more narrowly aligned along a SW–NE trend, with activity along the Laguna Salada-Cucapah-Indiviso fault zone, westward to the previously described one. Most post-event activity occurred on that fault, while seismicity west of Sierra El Mayor and towards east Sonora sharply decreased (Figure 3B).
In the PRBC zone, pre-event activity on the Sierra Juárez fault ceased after 2010 (Figure 3B). Whereas a change or increased activity appeared in the Valle de la Trinidad, along the San Miguel fault (Rösler et al., 2025), to the west of the San Pedro Mártir fault, and south of the Agua Blanca fault.
In the NGC zone, the number of recorded earthquakes increased after the 2010 event, particularly along the South of Cerro Prieto fault, and Consag and Wagner faults (Figure 3B and Figure 4A). This effect is probably due to improvements in the network’s geographic coverage in this zone.
6. Northern Gulf of California
The distribution of seismicity in this zone (light blue color in Figure 1) is concentrated to the south of the Cerro Prieto fault into the Gulf of California. Aguilar-Campos et al. (2008) described the tectonics of the northern Gulf of California based on the processing and interpretation of reflection seismic profiles. These authors interpreted three faults: Consag (first reported), Wagner, and Cerro Prieto (Figure 4A). These faults limit the Wagner basin to the west by the Consag fault, to the east by the Wagner fault, and to the north-northeast by the Cerro Prieto fault. A more detailed study of the tectonics of the northern Gulf of California is presented in González-Escobar et al. (2025a). Regarding the seismicity, between 2011 and 2021, several moderate-magnitude earthquakes were recorded, including a magnitude 5.7 event on March 7, 2020, in the northern Gulf of California (focal mechanism in Figure 4A). Seismic activity in this region is particularly notable between latitudes 30.0° and 31.5° N and longitudes -113.0° and -114.5° W (light blue color in Figure 1). At latitudes between 31.5° and 32.0°, most of the seismicity reported in the RESNOM catalog is associated with the southern end of the Cerro Prieto fault. At approximately latitude 31.0° N, there is a shift to the north-south direction in the distribution of seismicity, which is likely occurring in the Wagner basin (Figure 4). Most of the recorded earthquakes have magnitudes around 3.4. Since 2022, with the inclusion of data from RESBAN stations, it has been possible to record earthquakes of minimum magnitudes near 2.7 (Figures 2A and 2B, latitudes 30.0° to 31.5° and longitudes -114.0° to -114.5 °, respectively). Figures 4B and 4C also show statistics on the recorded seismicity. A broader overview of seismicity in the Gulf of California from 1901 to 2018 is presented in Castro et al. (2021).
7. Mexicali Valley-Laguna Salada
During the period 1999 to 2010, two crucial seismic phenomena occurred in this zone (lightbrown color in Figure 1): the Cerro Prieto February 2008 earthquake swarm and the Mw 7.2 El Mayor-Cucapah (EMC) earthquake on April 4, 2010. The Cerro Prieto swarm was characterized by six large earthquakes (magnitudes 5.0–5.2) that occurred in the first 13 days of seismic activity (from February 9 to 22, 2008), in addition to other events of lower magnitude (VidalVillegas et al., 2018). The swarm was located at the northern end of the Cerro Prieto fault and is an example of the kind of seismicity that occurs in the Mexicali Valley. In addition, the EMC earthquake resulted from a complex interaction among various strike-slip faults in NBC. The earthquake was widely felt along the border between California, United States, and Baja California, Mexico, and caused notable nearsurface effects, including ground liquefaction, surface fractures, damage to irrigation canals and to agricultural areas, and tilting of transmission towers, among others (Hauksson et al., 2011). The EMC earthquake was recorded by short-period instruments and by three broadband stations operated by RESNOM. This earthquake was also recorded by 8 RANOM stations, with a peak acceleration of 0.815 g at 19.5 km from the epicenter. Between April 2010 and mid-2011, a total of 10 200 aftershocks were recorded, primarily distributed among the Cucapah, Laguna Salada, Pescaderos, and Indiviso faults.
From 2011 onwards, seismicity was recorded mainly in the Mexicali Valley, along the Imperial and Cerro Prieto faults. The RESNOM stations were used to locate the EMC earthquake and its aftershocks; however, hypocentral location errors gradually increased with increasing distance south of the international border (Hauksson et al., 2011). The EMC earthquake produced a rupture of 120 km. Subsequent studies revealed that it was a complex rupture, initiated by an almost north-south normal fault (e.g., a magnitude 6.0 earthquake; Wei et al., 2011) and continuing with right-lateral faulting in a bilateral manner (e.g., a magnitude 7.2 earthquake; Hauksson et al., 2011; Wei et al., 2011). Figure 5A shows a map of the region’s seismicity, including the focal mechanism of the EMC earthquake, and some statistics on the recorded seismicity (Figures 5B and 5C).
8. Peninsular Ranges of Baja California.
Five main significant faults are in the Peninsular Ranges of Baja California (PRBC): Sierra Juárez, San Pedro Mártir, San Miguel-Vallecitos fault system, and Agua Blanca (green color in Figure 1). Table 1 summarizes the characteristics of these faults and the historical events associated with them. During the period of interest (1999 to 2024), the seismicity associated with these faults reported a remarkable example: a magnitude 5.1 earthquake occurred on August 17, 2020, at 15:30 UTC. This event took place in an area where the San Miguel, Agua Blanca, and San Pedro Mártir faults converge. The computed focal mechanism indicates right-lateral strikeslip motion (Figure 6A); however, it is difficult to associate it with any known surface fault. The zone is characterized by seismicity nearly perpendicular to the NW-SE-trending faults. Martínez González (2023) suggested that the fault plane of this earthquake is roughly orthogonal to the known faults. Figure 6A shows a seismicity map of the region along with important statistics of the recorded seismicity (Figures 6B and 6C).
9. Offshore of Northern Baja California.
Seismic activity has also been recorded along offshore faults off northern Baja California in the Pacific Ocean (blue color in Figure 1). A magnitude 4.3 earthquake occurred on July 25, 2022, at 11:21 UTC off the coast of the city of Ensenada. The event was felt by some people, reportedly waking several people. The focal mechanism indicates oblique faulting with a dominant normal component (Figure 8). Based on this location, the earthquake is likely associated with the Maximinos fault, which is a possible continuation of the Agua Blanca fault. Figure 7A shows a seismicity map of the region, along with statistics on the recorded seismicity (Figures 7B and 7C). Another relevant event is the magnitude 6.1 earthquake that occurred on November 22, 2022, off the coast of San Quintín (Figure 1). The earthquake, associated with the San Isidro fault (González-Escobar et al., 2025b), occurred at a depth of 4.3 km, and the focal mechanism indicates strike-slip faulting (Figure 7A).
10. Focal Mechanisms
Focal mechanisms were compiled from several catalogs, including the Global Centroid Moment Tensor (GCMT) (Dziewonski et al., 1981; Ekström et al., 2012), the USGS National Earthquake Information Center (NEIC), the Southern California Earthquake Center (SCEC) database, and the Servicio Sismológico Nacional (SSN) of Mexico. In addition, the RESNOM working group computed six events. For all events, the full moment tensor was determined, except for one case where the focal mechanism was derived from first-motion polarity analysis.
As shown in Figure 8, most focal mechanisms indicate strike-slip faulting, consistent with the regional right-lateral transform motion that characterizes the plate boundary in northwestern Mexico. In the northern Gulf of California (NGC) region, several normal faulting mechanisms are observed, likely related to crustal thinning and extensional deformation (Ramírez-Ramos et al., 2015). In the Mexicali Valley–Laguna Salada (MV–LS) zone, a cluster of normal faults striking roughly perpendicular to the main structural trend also suggests localized extension. Conversely, some reverse-faulting events in northeastern Baja California indicate localized compressional stress regimes, consistent with the complex stress interactions within the Pacific–North America plate boundary system (Castro et al., 2021).
11. Minimum magnitude of completeness
The minimum magnitude of completeness (Mc) is the threshold above which a seismic catalog is considered complete; that is, all earthquakes with magnitudes equal to or greater than Mc have been reliably recorded and located. The primary objective of determining Mc is to ensure the statistical validity of analyses conducted on the catalog, such as calculating the b-value in the GutenbergRichter law, estimating the seismic activity rate, or evaluating spatial-temporal patterns. To determine the completeness magnitude, we used the widely utilized Goodness-of-Fit Test (GFT) proposed by Wiemer and Wyss (2000). This method compares the observed cumulative frequency-magnitude distribution with a theoretical Gutenberg-Richter (GR) distribution generated for different magnitude thresholds. A metric R is defined, which represents the percentage of events in the catalog that can be modeled by the GR law above a given magnitude cutoff. Mc is then taken as the lowest magnitude at which R reaches a predefined level, typically 90%. In other words, Mc corresponds to the minimum magnitude above which at least 90% of the observed data follow the expected theoretical distribution. Results from this analysis can be shown in Figure 9, where the spatial heterogeneity in Mc is consistent with previous studies in the region, for instance, Zúñiga and Castro (2005) and Zúñiga et al. (2022).
In the MV-LS zone, the first stage was to compute Mc (1.8), followed by the values of A and B (Figure 10). Twenty-eight thousand events were used with M up to 7.1 (magnitude reported in the RESNOM catalog for the EMC earthquake). In the PRBC zone, a value of Mc = 1.6 was obtained (Figure 11), and over 15,000 earthquakes with M up to 5.2 were used to calculate a and b. In both zones, 90% of the goodness-of-fit threshold was achieved. In contrast, for the NGC and O-NBC zones, it was not possible to reach the 90% goodness-of-fit threshold. The maximum value for NGC was 88.5%, corresponding to Mc = 3.0. In the O-NBC zone, a maximum goodness-of-fit threshold of 89.3% corresponding to an Mc of 2.0 was achieved. In this zone, 1,003 events, magnitudes between Mc and M 6.1, were analyzed. For both zones, the goodness-of-fit threshold values are near 90%; for this reason, we assumed that the obtained Mc are close to the completeness magnitude (Figures 10 and 11). To compute the a and b parameters for the four zones, the least-squares and maximum-likelihood methods were used to evaluate the fit between the data (cumulative number of earthquakes versus magnitude) and the model. The computed a and b are summarized in Table 3 and shown in Figures 10 and 11.
Regarding the information shown in Figure 9, to find Mc, the method uses all events within a circular area of radius; in this case, approximately 83 km. Therefore, some magnitudes can be less than the Mc value for the entire zone. This effect could be related to the different number of earthquakes included in each circle.
12. Conclusions
The compiled earthquake catalogs (RESNOM and USGS) constitute a highly valuable and robust dataset of nearly 86,000 located events over 25 years of recorded seismicity. This dataset provides a solid foundation for seismic analysis in the region. Given the tectonic and structural heterogeneity, it is advisable to divide the study area into four zones to better characterize seismic behavior.
The focal mechanisms reveal significant spatial variability, with normal-faulting earthquakes prominently associated with the transtensional regime of the Mexicali Valley. Conversely, certain areas exhibit reverse-faulting mechanisms, interpreted as localized regions where compressive stress becomes dominant. Most of the focal mechanisms are right-lateral transform faults associated with the tectonic limit of the North American and Pacific Plates.
The EMC earthquake marked a turning point in the development of the Northwest Mexico Seismic Network (RESNOM) and in the spatial distribution of seismicity, as it appears to have triggered a westward migration of seismic activity in the Mexicali Valley–Laguna Salada zone.
The computed frequency-magnitude distribution (the Gutenberg-Richter relation) on the different zones allows us to find that the minimum completeness magnitude is different for the four zones: 1.6 in the Peninsular Ranges, 1.8 in Mexicali–Laguna Salada, 3.0 in the northern Gulf of California, and 2.0 offshore north Baja California.
Continued modernization and expansion of the seismic network are essential to improve further earthquake detection, location accuracy, and focal mechanism determination. Enhancing the network’s coverage and incorporating state-of-the-art instrumentation will strengthen real-time monitoring capabilities and provide higher-quality data for advancing our understanding of regional seismotectonic and seismic hazard assessment.
Supplementary data
Sources of compiled focal mechanisms shown in the text: Servicio Sismológico Nacional (SSN): https:// www.ssn.unam.mx, consulted on June 25, 2025. Southern California Earthquake Center (SCEC): https://www.scec.org, consulted on June 25, 2025. USGS National Earthquake Information Center (NEIC): https://earthquake.usgs.gov, consulted on June 25, 2025.
Contributions of authors
(1) Conceptualization: JAVV; (2) Data analysis or acquisition: OACA, RAV; (3) Drafting of the original manuscript: JAVV, OACA, RAV, LAYH, MANL; (4) Drafting of the revised and edited manuscript: JAVV, OACA, RAV, LAYH, MANL; (5) Graphic design: LAYH, MANL; (6) Interpretation: JAVV, OACA; (7) Other contributions: OACA (compilation of focal mechanisms).
Funding
CICESE, the former National Council of Science and Technology of Mexico, and now the new Secretary of Science, Humanities, Technology, and Innovation of Mexico, has provided funding for the operation of RESNOM.
Acknowledgments
Thanks to the personnel who have made RESNOM’s operations possible. Former personnel: Víctor Wong, Antonio Vidal, and Luis Mendoza. Luis Insunza, Luis Orozco, Óscar Gálvez, Ignacio Méndez, Julia Sánchez, and Guillermo Díaz. Nowadays personnel: Óscar Castro. Francisco Farfán, Sergio Arregui, Alejandra Núñez, Luis Yegres, Rogelio Ojeda, Rogelio Arce, Itzel Frías. A recognition to an anonymous reviewer and Arturo Iglesias for their valuable and constructive comments that allowed us to improve this article substantially. Thanks to Raúl Castro, guest editor, for their careful revision.
Conflicts of interest
The authors manifest no conflict of interest.
Handling editor
Raúl Ramón Castro Escamilla.
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