Story highlights California town hit by more than 100 minor earthquakes

Earthquake swarms not uncommon for the area, experts say

(CNN) Dozens of earthquakes helped bring in the New Year around Brawley, California, but they are more of a curiosity than a concern, experts tell CNN.

Caltech seismologist Lucy Jones said earthquake "swarms" aren't unexpected around Brawley -- there also was a swarm in 2012 -- because the fault-riddled region called the Brawley Seismic Zone lies between the large San Andreas Fault and the Imperial Fault.

More than 100 earthquakes have hit the region this weekend, but most are too weak, under 2.5 magnitude, to be noticed by people, said Donyelle Davis, spokeswoman for the United States Geological Survey.

Weak quakes can trigger a bigger, more dangerous quake, but Brawley, a city of about 25,000 people near the Mexican border, is too far from the San Andreas Fault for that to be much of a risk, Davis said.

"This area may have produced the most earthquakes in the entire state of California, but they are small," Jones said. "If they happened a mile away we would be concerned, but these quakes are about 30 miles from the San Andreas Fault."

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