A magnitude 7.1 earthquake jolted southern California on Friday night, near the location of a quake and powerful aftershock that shook the region over the July 4th holiday.
Friday’s quake was much bigger than the quakes 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.
A rockslide closed at state highway in Kern County, about 120 miles north of Los Angeles, where the quake was centered. A fire at a mobile home park burned several trailers.
“We know of no fatalities. There have been a lot of ambulance calls for help,” Kern County Fire Chief David Witt told reporters.
More than 1,000 Los Angeles firefighters were mobilized to deal with the quake — but there were no reports of severe damage or injuries.
Andrew Lippman of suburban South Pasadena was sitting outside reading a newspaper when Friday’s quake hit.
“It just started getting stronger and stronger, and I looked into my house and the lamp started to sway. I could see power lines swaying,” he told the AP. “This one seemed 45 [seconds] … I’m still straightening pictures.”
Lucy Jones, a seismologist, said on Twitter that Friday’s quake was in “the same sequence” as the quakes on Thursday.
A 6.4-magnitude earthquake struck the same remote area of Kern County on Thursday. It was followed by a 5.4-magnitude aftershock that was one of at least 170 aftershocks counted by seismologists.
After Thursday’s quakes, 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 the quakes on Thursday can now be seen as a “foreshock.”
Video taken during the earthquake quickly began trending on Twitter and other sites.
With News Wire Services