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US-EARTHQUAKE
Southern California rocked by strongest quake in two decades
LOS ANGELES, July 5, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Southern California was rocked by its
largest earthquake in two decades on Thursday, a 6.4-magnitude tremblor that
caused “substantial damage” at a military facility but otherwise only minor
injuries in the sparsely populated area.
The shallow quake, followed by dozens of aftershocks, struck in the Mojave
Desert six miles (10 kilometers) from the small city of Ridgecrest at 10:33
am (1733 GMT).
It was felt 160 miles away in Los Angeles and even as far afield as Las
Vegas in the neighboring state of Nevada, as the United States celebrated its
July 4 Independence Day holiday.
Although the quake in the most populous US state of California revived
fears of the “Big One” — a powerful tremor along the San Andreas Fault that
could devastate major cities in Southern California — President Trump was
quick to reassure that this wasn’t it.
“All seems to be very much under control!” he tweeted two hours after the
quake in the Searles Valley of San Bernardino County.
The area “will continue having a lot of aftershocks,” some maybe as strong
as magnitude five, California Institute of Technology seismologist Lucy Jones
told a press conference.
The earthquake was the largest in Southern California since 1999 when a
7.1-magnitude quake struck the Twentynine Palms Marine Corps base, according
to The Los Angeles Times.
Thursday’s epicenter was in or on the edge of the US Navy’s sprawling
desert bomb testing range known as China Lake.
The Naval Air Weapons Station covers 1.1 million acres (445,000 hectares)
and strictly controls the airspace above it. Inside, the Navy develops and
tests missiles, bombs, artillery shells and other war ordnance, and the
aircraft used to deliver it.
An official at China Lake told AFP there was “substantial damage” to their
facilities, including fires, water leaks and spills of hazardous materials.
Paul Dale, the station’s commanding officer, said later at a news
conference that officials were making “damage assessments,” and declined to
elaborate.
– Panic –
David Witt, the fire chief in Kern County which includes Ridgecrest,
reported “minor, minor injuries,” stemming from broken glass and shelves
falling down in supermarkets.
He was not able to provide an exact number of casualties.
Peggy Breeden, mayor of Ridgecrest which has a population of 28,000, said
the local hospital had been evacuated as a precaution, and she had received
reports of a handful of house fires.
Some areas of the city had lost power, while gas had been cut due to
ruptured lines, she said.
The San Bernardino County Fire Department said that “buildings and roads
have sustained varying degrees of damage.”
This included “buildings with minor cracks, broken water mains, power lines
down, rock slides on certain roads.”
The quake struck at a depth of 6.6 miles (10.7 kilometers) in the vast
desert region.
Residents told local TV that the shaking set off panic, while sending
televisions plunging to the ground and causing drawers to fall open.
AFP reporters in Los Angeles clearly felt the earthquake for about 10
seconds.
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said there was no significant damage in the
second-largest US city.
– ‘Even bigger earthquake’ –
Jones said there is a small possibility this quake is the prelude to a
larger one.
“There is about a one-in-20 chance that this location will be having an
even bigger earthquake within the next few days, that we have not yet seen
the biggest earthquake of the sequence,” she said.
“There have been hundreds of earthquakes today,” she said, including more
than 100 that the United States Geological Survey measured at greater than
magnitude 2.5.
But Jones noted that the quake was not along the San Andreas fault.
“It is an area with a lot of little faults but no long fault,” she tweeted.
For filmmaker Ava DuVernay, a lifelong resident of Los Angles, “that was
the longest earthquake I’ve ever experienced. Not jerky. Smooth and rolling.
But it was loooong.”
BSS/AFP/GMR/0853 hrs