6.9 Earthquake Near So. Cal. Friday Night - Lot's of Shaking
This was a big one. I was in the desert yesterday when the last one hit, 6.4 out in Ridgecrest, where tonight's earthquake also originated from. Ridgecrest is right next to Trona/Searles Lake, where I dig for halite every October. Many homes and buildings in Trona are 50+ years old. After tonight's quake I imagine there is massive damage out there.
Trona/Searles Lake is the dark area on the right. China Lake Naval Base is dead center of the quake. You can see the air strips forming an A. Ridgecrest is the area just below the A. I've stayed the night there many, many times while out rock hounding in the desert.
My house shook pretty damn good. Enough to make me get up out of bed and brace for increased intensity.
I've been through a lot of quakes, both in California and Tokyo. The Tokyo one's were 6.2-6.4 and those freaked me out because I was in concrete buildings around 6 floors up. The buildings shook pretty violently.
Anyway, you can see from the image above there are a lot of fault lines up near Ridgecrest. What concerns me now is that this quake could trigger the San Andreas, the main N/S fault that could cause MASSIVE devastation. We are past due for a 100 year quake here so say a prayer that nothing happens until I get out of here back to Tokyo! Seriously though, pray for the people up in Ridgecrest and Trona because this one could cause big damage.
Hope all is well @rt395! We felt a small 4.7 a couple days ago.
There circling around! Might shake some cool new rocks out! :-)
Worried about the people in Trona. It's a mining town and the plant is the only employer. Plus the houses are old. Good news is so far no deaths that I've heard of.
I am thinking of heading up to Haystack mountain which is just north about 20 miles of the epicenter. The mountain is covered in boulders that contain amazonite, smokey quartz and aquamarine. I know some of those boulders dislodged and rolled down the mountain!
A 4.7 can still shake you good if it is a shallow quake. People don't get that, if it is deep you won't feel it as much, but if it is closer to the surface you feel it.