Scientists discovered something super surprising about earthquakes and it totally changes how we think about them

Natural disasters are constantly being examined for data in order to prevent casualties in the future. Earthquakes are some of the scariest in that category because they seemingly come out of nowhere. If you live in the Los Angeles area, not only are you very aware of earthquakes  — but you’ve also been warned about “the big one” for quite some time.

Well, it looks like scientists have discovered something that isn’t going to put you into a state of relaxation anytime soon.

It seems as though science is showing us that we know nothing about earthquakes, after all.

We used to think that they occurred only as deep as 12 to 15 miles into the earth.

Now we know that earthquakes can occur much deeper underground and can actually cause bigger damage than before.

Unfortunately, it’s true. According to the LA Times, Caltech’s seismology professor Jean Paul Ampuero has been looking into earthquakes more carefully ever since the infamous 2012 8.6 magnitude earthquake that struck the Indian Ocean since the damage it caused could not be explained by information they had.

Ampuero dug further and discovered that earthquakes can occur in the upper mantle area of the earth — an area where the rock is hot and moves like honey.

You might be thinking that this is all very whatever…

…but you should take the findings very seriously, especially if you live in Southern California — specifically Los Angeles. While the movie San Andreas might have been a little over-the-top, a powerful earthquake could really hurt a lot of people in that area. Hopefully scientists can figure out a way to predict natural disasters faster now that they have this information so more people can be prepared.