NASA radar images show that Calexico, California was moved as much as 2 1/2 feet (80 cm) south as well as pushed down into the Earth by a magnitude 7.2 earthquake that hit Baja California on April 4, 2010. Does that mean that Calexico is now part of Mexico or has the United States just claimed a couple of feet of Mexican land? I’ll leave that to the politicos  to decide.

The April 4th Baja California quake is called the El Mayor-Cucapah earthquake. It was the strongest earthquake to strike that region in almost 120 years. It was centered 32 miles south-southeast of Calexico. Two people were killed and hundreds were injured. Apparently, it also moved the borders of Mexico and the U.S. as well.

Apparently, cities being moved along the San Andreas fault are not unheard of. Earlier this year the Chilean city of Concepcion moved about 10 feet to the west when the fifth most powerful temblor in recorded history struck Chile. In addition, the Chile quake shifted the Earth’s axis shortening the length of days by 1.26 microsecond. Scientists say that’s not unusual either. In 1989, a 6.9 magnitude quake hit Loma Prieta in southern California and moved the Pacific plate 6.2 feet to the northwest and 4.3 feet upward out of the Earth.

According to scientist, these quakes and shifting eventually reshape the Earth. San Francisco is moving towards Los Angeles at a rate of about 2 inches a year. They say it’ll take a few million years for the two cities to be neighbors.

The movement of Calexico was discovered by NASA making radar sweeps over the quake-affected region in a Gulfstream-III jet specially outfitted for scientific flights. The aircraft flew at 41,000 feet above the fault system and recorded how the quake changed the Earth’s surface. The Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar (UAVSAR) developed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. NASA has been mapping the Earth’s shifts on the San Andreas fault from San Francisco to the Mexican border since the Spring of 2009.