Reported By: Rob Hughes (rhughes@kswt.com)

Imperial Valley, CA November 4- Earthquakes are rocking the Desert Southwest. Several back-to-back earthquakes on Tuesday and Wednesday, what's going on?

Experts say the Valley is one of the most unique spots for earthquakes in the world, and while you can't stop them, you can protect yourself by understanding them.

"In our area, we tend to have a lot of earthquakes because we're the boundary between the North American Plate and the Pacific Plate, and there are about a dozen plates around the whole earth that are moving all the time," said Geologist Earl Burnett.

Burnett, a Professor at Arizona Western College, explains that swarms of earthquakes that have been rumbling in the Imperial Valley are caused by moving magma that's rising to the earth's crust.

"In this area, we have swarms of earthquakes," said Burnett, "there's not a real main shock, just a lot of earthquakes that are about the same size, caused by moving magma, because the crust is very thin here; 2-4 miles deep."

Meanwhile, Earth Scientist Graciela Coke says the Valley is due for another big earthquake, but experts can't predict when because history has shown that earthquakes don't follow a definite trend.

"It's like this little swarm; this is happening now, could it be the big one, you don't know because it could be a big earthquake by then, or it could be quiet until next year, and then we could have another swarm," said Coke.

Coke, a retired Cibola High School teacher, encourages you to always have emergency supplies in your home; take cover underneath a table or doorway if you're in your home when an earthquake happens, and make sure that your family and loved ones are always on the same page.

"Try to have a plan to evacuate your family, so that way you minimize the trauma to your family," said Coke.

For more information on earthquakes in the Desert Southwest and what you can do to stay safe, visit earthquake.usgs.gov and shakeout.org.

Arizona Western College also has an active seismograph you can view by going to http://virgil.azwestern.edu/~seismology