Yes, we have earthquakes, but not many big ones recently. Here is the Caltech earthquake map of recent quakes:
http://scedc.caltech.edu/recent/The Eastern Sierra Nevada region has been volcanically active for millions of years. We are right on a major geological uplift, which is why Mt. Whitney has such an odd shape: steep East side, gradual West side. Mt. Whitney is still growing!
Driving past Crowley Lake, one sees the Long Valley caldera, the blast crater from an eruption about 600,000 years ago, which lifted over 250,000 cubic kilometers of solid material into the atmosphere. By comparison, Mt. St. Helens produced a mere 250.
Several years ago we had a series of 6.nn quakes centered near Mammoth Lakes, CA. The quakes were caused by a deep magma body shifting upward. The magma body creates very hot water, which is used for power generation just East of Mammoth. The magma body is located almost directly below the intersection of HWYs 395 and 203 ( the road into Mammoth). I was working at the Pine Creek mine at the time of those quakes; it was pretty scary to see huge rock and earth slides coming down into Pine Creek canyon as the mine access road moved up and down like a giant snake.
