Los Angeles, Iran and Istanbul are NOW at risk of DEADLY earthquakes

Seismologists are concerned tension is building beneath the surface as the movement of the tectonic plates has seemingly upped a notch this year.

South east Asia, South America, and most recently Europe in the form of a devastating earthquake in Italy which claimed the lives of at least 267 people, are all feeling the affects.

However, there are fears that an even bigger one could be building, which could potentially wipe out entire cities.

Here are three locations touted as hosting the next huge earthquake.

Los Angeles, USA

The south-western US city sits right on top of the deadly San Andreas fault and is no stranger to tremors.

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena have warned a series of mini-tremors beneath the surface of the City of Angels have caused pressure to build-up.

In 2014, a 5.1 magnitude earthquake hit the town of La Habra in southern California and the experts from NASA say that there is still some left over strain from that, which will almost definitely hit before April 2018.

JPL geophysicist Dr Andrea Donnellan said: “When the La Habra earthquake happened, it was relieving some of that stress, and it actually shook some of the upper sediments in the LA basin and moved those a little bit more.

“There’s enough energy stored to produce about a magnitude 6.1 to 6.3 earthquake.”

Tehran, Iran

Iran’s capital, Tehran, is not only built on new sediment that is not particularly great for the welfare of buildings, but it is also located near to three major fault lines.

Additionally a population boom has seen officials rush to build homes, without all the necessary safety concerns of an earthquake-prone city, leaving its bustling population vulnerable to the devastation.

Seismologist Bahram Akasheh of the a professor at Tehran's Islamic Azad University warned that risk of the city experiencing an earthquake of at least 6 on the Richter scale is at 90 per cent.

He told Reuters that it could be "maybe in 50 years. Maybe tomorrow night. Or maybe while I'm speaking".

Former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad warned that the city is too populated to cope with the potentially catastrophic tremor.

He said: "Tehran has 13 million inhabitants. If an incident happens, how can we manage it? Therefore, Tehran should be evacuated.

"At least 5 million people should leave Tehran.”

Istanbul, Turkey

During the 20th century, more than 100,000 people died from several earthquakes in the most populous city in Turkey.

This has led seismologist to seriously worry about the inhabitants of Istanbul as many hastily constructed homes has left them without sufficient protection.

A study carried out in 2000 found that the Turkish city is at a 60 per cent risk of experiencing a magnitude 7.0 earthquake there by 2030.

To put that into perspective as to how devastating that could be for the city, a 7.6 tremor in the Kocaeli province – some 75 miles away from Istanbul – was responsible for the death of almost 1,000 Istanbulite.