Good morning, everyone: as I’m sure you’ve spotted by now, there was a magnitude 7.1 earthquake in Southern California at 2019 hours local time on Friday. Although there are currently no reports of any deaths, the quake – which struck pretty much where the
magnitude 6.4 quake took place on Thursday, near Ridgecrest – has caused gas leaks, structural damage and minor injuries in those in towns and cities nearby.
Here’s everything you need to know about the quake; I’ll update this post if anything changes along the way.
So, what happened?
The
magnitude 7.1 quake struck just a stone’s throw away from the Independence Day magnitude 6.4 quake, at a depth of around 17 kilometres (10.6 miles or so), a little north-northeast of Ridgecrest in the Searles Valley.
According to the
modified Mercalli scale, which measures shaking intensity, the quake, at its epicentre,
came in as a IX on a scale that goes up to (and theoretically past) an X. That means the perceived shaking at the epicentre could be described as “violent”.
For those nearest the epicentre, this would have been a truly terrifying experience. The shaking in places like Los Angeles and Las Vegas would have been relatively weak, but still detectable, based on the hundreds of thousands of reports coming in, with some coming in over in neighbouring Nevada, and even as far south as Mexico.
As this quake took place on land and far from any major body of water, there was no risk of a tsunami occurring.
What about damage or deaths?
According to the modified Mercalli scale, the potential for damage was “heavy,” and sadly, that appears to be materialising.
News outlets, including by
BBC News, are reporting that power has gone out across large swaths of Ridgecrest, and there are gas leaks, fires, and injuries – but, fortunately, no deaths at present. Various fire departments – from those in Kern County to those in San Bernardino – are all responding to similar events, noting that in some cases they have evacuated residents while gas leaks are attended to, and from some homes that look structurally dicey.
As before, the epicentre was some distance away from any town or city centre, with Ridegcrest being the closest, just a few miles down the road. That means the potential for damage was limited compared to any similar-scale even that might have took place right beneath or adjacent to a metropolitan area, but clearly, thanks to the intense and widespread shaking, widespread damage still occurred.
Continued: