A magnitude 5.4 earthquake struck southern California on July 5, less than 24 hours after a 6.4 quake hit the same area.
The earthquake struck just west of Searles Valley, in the Mojave Desert, about 120 miles from the Pacific coast, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) said.
It was the same area where Thursday’s quake—the strongest in 20 years—struck.
Friday’s quake, which struck just after 4 a.m., was felt in Los Angeles, Long Beach, and Las Vegas, among other areas, according to reports people filed on the survey’s website.
Some people in Los Angeles said they were woken up by the jolt.
The aftershocks to the #SearlesValley earthquake show that two faults are involved. One strikes northwest and the other northeast. You can see the aftershocks at https://t.co/BwTOi7AGG2 pic.twitter.com/gkDzPh4I9G
— Dr. Lucy Jones (@DrLucyJones) July 4, 2019
Experts said on July 4 after the significant quake that there would be a number of aftershocks, some above 5.0 magnitude.
“We should be expecting lots of aftershock and some will be bigger than three,” seismologist Dr. Lucy Jones told NBC Los Angeles. “It is certain this area will shake a lot today. Some will exceed magnitude five.”
Aftershocks as high as 4.6 magnitude were seen in the hours following the quake. A 5.4 magnitude quake that struck the same area in August 1995 was followed by more than 2,500 aftershocks in the following five weeks.
“There is about a 1 in 20 chance that this location will be having an even bigger earthquake within the next few days,” Jones told CBS News.
“It’s big enough to cause significant damage,” Michio Kaku, a physics professor at the City University of New York, said of Thursday’s quake. He said it was fortunate it happened in a low population area.
“That’s the good news,” he added. “The bad news is, the probability of a big one hasn’t changed at all. We’re playing Russian Roulette with mother nature. The last big earthquake to hit the L.A. segment of the San Andreas fault was 1680. That’s over 300 years ago. But the cycle time … is 130 years. We are way overdue. In any given year, the probability of a big one is three percent.”
Quake Felt
Ridgecrest-area residents said that they felt the quake on Thursday.
“I was laying down in my bed and I had my feet on the wall and I felt like both of the sides of the house were moving and shaking, so I ran and grabbed my brother and kid and came outside,” Edith Mata, 22, a student at Bakersfield College, told the Los Angeles Times.
“I was in my kitchen trying to get some coffee and all the windows started rattling,” added Emma Gallegos, a 34-year-old journalist in southwest Bakersfield, located in Kern County. “It was just a little bit at first—I thought something was going by, and then I realized all the windows were rattling. It was kind of a long, gentle roll, and I felt two distinct waves.”
People in Los Angeles reacted to the quake, noting they clearly felt it.
“Been living in Los Angeles all my life. That was the longest earthquake I’ve ever experienced. Not jerky. Smooth and rolling. But it was loooong,” wrote filmmaker Ava DuVernay on Twitter.
Been living in Los Angeles all my life. That was the longest earthquake I’ve ever experienced. Not jerky. Smooth and rolling. But it was loooong. It was so long I thought for the first time ever “Is this the big one?” Damn. Respect Mother Nature. She’s the boss.
— Ava DuVernay (@ava) July 4, 2019
“It was so long I thought for the first time ever, ‘Is this the big one?’ Damn. Respect Mother Nature. She’s the boss,” she added.
People also felt it in Vegas, which is about 145 miles away.
“I was actually sitting at the blackjack table at the Wynn and it just felt like I was on a boat,” Alec Ventresca told KLAS. “I actually thought the guy that I was sitting with was kicking the table.”
“We were actually up on the 19th floor of the Encore,” added Carl Johnson, a visitor on the Las Vegas Strip. “I just felt like just like shaking, left to the right and it felt kind of weird like, it’s kind of like you’re on a ride or something. You remember like a carnival ride. It felt weird.”
