2nd quake hits Calif.
7.1-magnitude temblor may be biggest in 20 years; felt in Vegas & Mex.
A magnitude 7.1 earthquake struck Southern California on Friday night, near the location of a quake that shook the region on the July 4th holiday.
Friday’s quake was much bigger than the quake reported Thursday, and according to the Associated Press may be the biggest recorded in California in 20 years.
The quake, which hit at 8:19 p.m. Pacific time, was felt in downtown Los Angeles and shook cameras during a live broadcast of a Dodgers game. It was felt as far away as Las Vegas and Mexico, reports said.
Lucy Jones, a seismologist, tweeted that Friday’s quake was in “the same sequence” as the quakes Thursday.
The 5.4 magnitude aftershock of Thursday’s quake struck around 4:07 a.m. local time Friday just northeast of Ridgecrest, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. It was one of at least 170 aftershocks following a 6.4 earthquake in the same remote area of Kent County Thursday morning.
The Thursday quake was preceded by a 4.2-magnitude tremor about a half-hour earlier.
After Thursday’s quake, the U.S. Geological Survey said the chance of another earthquake “of magnitude 6 or higher is 20%, and it is most likely that as few as 0 or as many as 2 such earthquakes may occur.”
“You know how we say we [see a] 1 in 20 chance that an earthquake will be followed by something bigger?” Jones tweeted. “This is that 1 in 20 time.”
She said Thursday’s quake can now be seen as a “foreshock.”
Thursday’s quake was felt in Los Angeles, Long Beach, Laguna Hills, San Bernardino, Fresno and Las Vegas, The Los Angeles Times reported. Movers and shakers flocked to social media throughout the morning to again describe how they felt the ground tremble beneath them.
“Just got back to LA.
Missed the first one but definitely felt one right now,” singer Aaron Carter tweeted Friday. “That earthquake literally felt like chuckie got mad and decided to push my bed and ran away.”
Multiple injuries have been reported since the first earthquake Thursday, though no deaths have been recorded. Thursday’s quake also prompted Gov. Gavin Newsom to declare a state of emergency for Kern County and vowed to provide aid for local municipalities in their recovery efforts.
The governor tweeted Friday that he’s “continuing to monitor aftershocks today.”
The damages are unclear, but the U.S. Geological Service said the bill could reach $100 million. Emergency crews were still working Friday to contain smaller vegetation fires as well as managing gas leaks and patching up cracked roads.