The chance of an earthquake of magnitude 5 or higher is 96 %, and it is most likely that as few as 0 or as many as 8 such earthquakes may occur...
— USGS (@USGS) July 6, 2019
Southern California was shaken by yet another powerful earthquake that hit them on late Friday evening. The magnitude 7.1 quake caused injuries, sparked fires and closed roadways. Fortunately, no deaths were reported.
The latest earthquake happened just after 8 p.m. local time and was centered in the Mojave Desert near the town of Ridgecrest, which is still recovering from a 6.4 quake on the Fourth of July.
Social media posts showed restaurant lights swaying, items crashing from store shelves and vehicles shaking violently more than 100 miles from the center of the quake.
Despite the quake being over, the people are still called to be ready for aftershocks.
A seismologist in California says scientists believe the sequence of earthquakes striking the Mojave Desert will produce more than 30,000 quakes of magnitude 1 or greater over six months. Dr. Egill Hauksson also said Saturday at Caltech that the probability of a magnitude 7 over the next week has declined to 3 percent.
He says the probability for a magnitude 6 is 27 percent so he would expect one or two of those in the next week.
(Image Credit: USGS/ Twitter)