6.4 magnitude quake rattles Southern California
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UPDATE 7/5/2019 1:20 p.m. The city of Los Angeles is planning to reduce the threshold for public notifications by its earthquake early warning app, but officials say it was in the works before Southern California’s big earthquake Thursday.
The ShakeAlert LA app was designed to notify users of magnitudes of 5.0 or greater and when a separate intensity scale predicts potentially damaging shaking.
Robert de Groot of the U.S. Geological Survey says lowering the magnitude to 4.5 was already being worked on and had been discussed with LA as recently as a day before Thursday’s magnitude 6.4 quake centered in the Mojave Desert.
The shaking intensity levels predicted for LA were below damaging levels, so an alert was not triggered.
Mayor’s office spokeswoman Andrea Garcia also says the lower magnitude threshold has been in the planning stages and an update to the system is expected this month.
UPDATE 7/4/2019 2:25 p.m. A California official says there are some injuries and two house fires have been reported in a town near the epicenter of a 6.4 quake that rattled a large swath of Southern California and parts of Nevada.
Kern County Fire Chief David Witt says emergency crews are also dealing with small vegetation fires, cracks on some roads and gas leaks that were reported after the quake Thursday. It struck in the Mojave Desert, about 150 miles (240 kilometers) northeast of Los Angeles, near Ridgecrest. It is the strongest quake to hit the region in 20 years.
Witt says 15 patients were being evacuated from the Ridgecrest Regional Hospital as a precaution and out of concern for aftershocks.
Kern County District Supervisor Mick Gleason told CNN there are some structural issues with the hospital and some patients had to be moved from one ward to another and that others were taken to a neighboring building.
Gleason did not say what the structural issues were.
UPDATE 7/4/2019 2 p.m. The USGS wrote in a twitter thread that there is an 80% chance of a magnitude 5 earthquake or higher in the next week, and as few as zero or as many as nine could happen.
It also says the chance of an earthquake magnitude 6 or higher is 20%. In the three hours after the initial 6.4 quake, the USGS recorded 114 aftershocks of magnitude 2.5 or greater and 9 with a magnitude 4.0 or greater.
According to the USGS forecast, over the next week there is a 9% chance of one or more aftershocks larger than magnitude 6.4, and it is likely there will be between 50 and 700 magnitude 3 or higher aftershocks in the next week.
On average, the USGS says an earthquake as large as 6.4 has an aftershock as large as 5.4 and around 10 aftershocks with magnitude 4.4 or greater.
UPDATE 7/4/2019 12:35 p.m. Ridgecrest, California, Mayor Peggy Breeden says firefighters are working to put out five fires in the area following an earthquake but that she didn’t know if any injuries have been reported.
Breeden tells CNN utility workers are assessing broken gas lines and turning off gas where necessary.
Breeden says the local senior center was holding a Fourth of July event when the quake hit. She says everyone made it out shaken up but without injuries.
The 6.4 magnitude quake struck at 10:33 a.m. Thursday in the Mojave Desert, about 150 miles (240 kilometers) northeast of Los Angeles, near Ridgecrest. It is the strongest quake to hit the region in 20 years.
Seismologist Lucy Jones says a series of aftershocks were occurring and that at least one of them was a 4.3 magnitude temblor. She expects more throughout the day.
UPDATE 7/4/2019 12:05 p.m. Veteran seismologist Lucy Jones says the earthquake Thursday was the strongest to hit Southern California in 20 years.
She says the previous large quake was a 7.1 on that struck in the area on October 16, 1999.
Jones told reporters at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California, that the 6.4 quake centered in the Mojave Desert near the town of Ridgecrest was preceded by a magnitude 4.3 temblor about a half hour earlier.
She says it was vigorous aftershock sequence occurring and that she wouldn’t be surprise if a magnitude 5 quake occurred during the aftershocks.
There were reports of at least one house fire in Ridgecrest.
There were no immediate reports of injuries in the Los Angeles area, which is about 125 miles (240 kilometers) southwest of Ridgecrest.
UPDATE 7/4/2019 11:40 a.m. Officials in Southern California say emergency crews are responding to at least 24 medical and fire incidents after a 6.4 magnitude earthquake struck near Ridgecrest, California. There were no immediate reports of injuries in the Los Angeles area, which is about 125 miles (240 kilometers) southwest of Ridgecrest.
The Kern County Fire Department says it is sending search and rescue teams to the town of 28,000 people.
The quake measured with a preliminary magnitude of 6.4 struck Thursday morning in the Mojave Desert.
People from Las Vegas to the Pacific Coast reported feeling a rolling motion that shook shower doors and made hanging dining room light sway.
UPDATE 7/4/2019 11:05 a.m. An earthquake that struck Wednesday morning in the Mojave Desert rattling a large swath of Southern California was also felt in neighboring Nevada. It was not immediately known if it caused major damage or injuries.
The quake measured with a preliminary magnitude of 6.4 struck Wednesday morning near the town of Ridgecrest, California, about 150 miles (240 kilometers) northeast of Los Angeles.
People from Las Vegas to the Pacific Coast reported feeling a rolling motion that shook shower doors and made hanging dining room light sway.
PREVIOUS STORY: A large earthquake has rattled a large swath of Southern California. There are no immediate reports of damage.
The quake measured with a preliminary magnitude of 6.4 struck Wednesday morning near the town of Ridgecrest, California, about 150 miles (240 kilometers) northeast of Los Angeles.
People from the desert to the Pacific coast in Southern California reported feeling it.
