California rocked by five earthquakes in just 48 hours
California residents have been hit by as many as five earthquakes in the past 48 hours.
A magnitude 4.4 was felt in the north around Lake County on Saturday, and another two The following evening, an earthquake measuring 2.7 and 2.8 on the Richter scale struck the area.
Residents in Southern California reported two more earthquakes on Saturday, the largest measuring 3.9.
Northern California typically experiences about 50 earthquakes per month. There were two this weekend, in addition to the two felt in the southern part of the state.
The swarm had a magnitude of 2.7 to 4.4, with the largest occurring at 7 a.m. ET on Saturday.
The 2.7 magnitude quake struck Covelo shortly after 12:00 a.m. PT on Sunday, and the second quake, measuring 2.8, struck at 10:52 p.m. PT that same day.
These messages came just a day after residents in Southern California received a ShakeAlert, a warning that warns people of an impending earthquake and tells them to take cover just before the quake strikes.
The first had a magnitude of 3.5 on the Richter scale and occurred at 10:05 a.m. local time.
According to the US Geological Survey, the epicenter was 4.3 miles (6.9 kilometers) southeast of Ontario.
The second quake, measuring 3.9 on the Richter scale, struck at 10:34 a.m., with its epicentre in much the same place.
The earthquakes struck on Saturday morning and were felt by millions of people in the region.
“I felt vibrations early this morning between 6 and 7am and thought it was an earthquake in my sleep. When I woke up this morning I saw the news,” one person wrote on Reddit after Sunday’s quakes.
The US Geological Survey has not reported any damage caused by the five earthquakes.
Residents of Northern California rarely notice the earthquakes. They usually measure three on the Richter scale or less. However, some people have reported feeling their homes shake due to seismic activity.
According to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), people typically only feel earthquakes with a magnitude of 3.0 or higher. However, this also depends on the depth and location of the quake.
At their deepest, earthquakes can occur as much as 640 kilometers underground.
Earthquakes that reach a distance of 69 kilometers or less are considered shallow and cause only minor to moderate damage.
Residents were issued ShakeAlerts ahead of Saturday’s quakes, with one person reporting feeling the tremors around 7 a.m.
However, in 2024, a record number of small earthquakes struck the state, and geophysicists are now warning that California is at risk of a massive earthquake that will go down in history.
“2024 has had more earthquakes than any year we’ve seen since 1988,” Caltech geophysicist Dr. Lucy Jones told reporters. “We should expect that to continue.”
Experts say a major earthquake in Southern California, typically defined as one measuring 7.0 or greater, could kill at least 1,800 people, injure 50,000, and cause more than $200 billion in damage.
The series of quakes occurred as heat swept the state, prompting many to question whether the record heat wave was the cause.
About 25 million residents were hit by heat warnings this weekend, stretching from California’s southern border to Washington and Idaho, but the USGS assured them they were not to blame.
According to the USGS, there is no such thing as “earthquake weather.”
‘Statistically, the distribution of earthquakes is about equal in cold weather, warm weather, rainy weather, etc.’