5.0 Quake Rattles Ridgecrest, Southern California

LOS ANGELES, CA — A magnitude 5.0 quake struck near Little Lake California Thursday afternoon.

It's the largest quake to hit Searles Valley region in weeks. Since two major quakes hit the region on July Fourth and Fifth, thousands of aftershocks have struck, but in recent days, they had dwindled down to a handful of smaller temblors daily.

According to the US Geological Survey, the 5.0 magnitude quake struck at 1:49 p.m. Thursday just east of Little Lake. It was almost immediately followed by several sizable aftershocks, including a 3.0, a 3.2, 3.3 and 3.6 magnitude quakes. At 10:34 p.m. Thursday a larger 4.3 magnitude quake hit. The 5.0 magnitude quake was felt all the way to the coast, as far south as Coronado and San Diego, north of Merced and into Las Vegas, Nevada, according to the USGS. The earthquake hit at a depth of 1.5 miles

There were no immediate reports of injury or damage.

Quake activity in the region ramped up with the July 4 magnitude 6.7 quake, which preceded the July 5 7.1 temblor, the largest earthquake to hit Southern California in decades.

Seismologists have been closely monitoring the quake activity in the region with an eye toward nearby faults that could be triggered. The fault responsible for the Searles Valley series is growing longer with each big quake. Two nearby faults reportedly have the capability of casing major quakes in Southern California.

According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the Ridgecrest aftershocks were creeping closer and closer to the Owens Valley and Garlock Faults. The Owens Valley Fault, in the Mammoth area, is responsible for one of the largest California quakes on record and the Garlock skirts the Mojave Desert and could produce a major quake felt from Ventura County To San Diego County.

“Those are places we would be more concerned,” U.S. Geological Survey research geophysicist Morgan Page told the Los Angeles Times. “Little earthquakes are telling us where big earthquakes are more likely.”

The strikeslip responsible for the July swarm of quakes hitting Ridgecrest is not connected to the San Andreas fault which runs along the most populous parts of California, according to Seismologist Lucy Jones. The Ridgecrest quakes are not likely to trigger quakes along the San Andreas, which is more than 100 miles away, according to seismologists.

But the fault line is spreading, and that has the experts watching closely to see if it could trigger quakes along the major fault lines.

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