The earth had another itch this afternoon, according to reports from the U.S. Geological Survey, a magnitude 5.7 earthquake struck beneath the Pacific Ocean off the Northern California.
But don’t worry folks, the National Weather Service didn’t issue any tsunami warnings for the coast.
The small tremor happened at 12:50 p.m. 2.5 miles below sea level, according to the USGS. The epicenter occurred 122 miles west of Ferndale’s village on California’s Lost Coast.
Social media was rather calm about it, with only a few indications of people reporting to have felt it. Neither the Eureka nor Fortuna police departments have received reports of damage. 20 seconds later after the temblor, the USGS had reported a 5.6 magnitude quake closer to the California coast, but it was a fluke since the report was deleted only moments later.
A spokesman for the USGS later reported that there was only a single event.
Justin Pressfield, the spokesman for the USGS, said there was an error in communication between different scientific networks that were reading the quake’s data, resulting in the mistake that leads to two reports.
Some people of the greater Eureka area reported feeling the quake that was followed by a 3.9-magnitude aftershock that occurred at 5:00 p.m. A smaller 3.3 temblor also occurred in the same general area around 10 a.m., according to the reports.
Our north coast is one of the state’s most seismically sensitive areas, regularly producing heart-stopping earthquakes that have fortunately haven’t amounted to anything serious in years. A serious of other smaller quakes have been reported in the area in recent days.
Back in January 2010, a very scary 6.5-magnitude earthquake struck the Eureka area, windows shattered, power lines snapped, chimneys started toppling, traffic signals got knocked down, and people had to get evacuated from an apartment building. Larger quakes have hit the area, but fortunately, none have caused the damage of the 2010 temblor.
Some sites have been reporting that an 8.2-magnitude quake could hit California sometime in the near future, this, of course, is completely false, we should remind people that as of now, there is absolutely not a single piece of technology that can predict earthquakes. The seismic activity that is underwhelming Mexico right now, is by no way an indication that the California area will suffer the same fate. Still, people should prepare themselves with supplies and first aid kits, for it is the responsible thing to do, but by now way should anybody start panicking.