In July 2019, the USGS reported that 7.1 magnitude earthquakes happen in California and leave big cracks on earth. However, they seldom cause casualties and rarely cause significant damage. The same was true for the California quake.
Apart from creating a fissure, the quake also shook the bridge and cars and spilled oil all over the ground.
According to California’s Governor and USGS, no casualties were reported during this earthquake. However, some buildings in Ridgecrest were damaged during the quake. A resident of Ridgecrest, Linda Stinson, told the Associated Press on July 9 that the quake woke all the residents in her house.
“I could feel it shake my bed. It was like an earthquake. I thought that it was rocks falling or something like that,” Stinson said. “But then I looked out the window and saw the gashes in the side of my garage.”
She was right. The fissure cracked the garage door. Despite cracking the garage, Stinson’s house didn’t receive any structural damage.
Stinson said that it took about half an hour for her to check all parts of her house. However, she noted that one of the shower doors caved in during the quake, and she had to replace it with a new one.
The earthquake occurred during an eclipse of the Sun. NASA reported that though the earthquake did not result in any deaths, it did damage buildings and roads.
California’s Small Earthquakes
USGS stated that the area has a history of small earthquakes. “The earthquakes near Ridgecrest and China Lake in California and near El Paso, Texas, and Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, are part of a series of moderate-sized earthquakes that have occurred over the past year in the same general region.”
The USGS further said that “Earthquakes in eastern California can be caused by rebound (after an earthquake) or triggered (by human activity such as disposal of waste).”
The United States Geological Survey (USGS) announced the earthquake occurred from lightweight strike-slip faulting in the shell of the North America plate. It happened approximately 34 hours after a 6.4 magnitude earthquake in the corresponding area on July 4.
A Spike in Earthquakes
The Ridgecrest earthquakes may be the most recent quakes to cause alarm in California, which has experienced a spike in seismic activity over the past few years.
California is known for experiencing earthquakes almost every year, but not quite this frequently.
The state has experienced several earthquakes over the past few years, most notably the 6.9 magnitude quake that struck near Napa in 2014 and a 7.9 magnitude earthquake that struck Mexico in 2017, killing more than 350 people and leaving thousands homeless.
Residents of Ridgecrest were shocked by the earthquake, but no injuries or casualties have been reported so far.
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