5.4 magnitude earthquake shakes California
A magnitude 5.4 earthquake shook the Southern California desert east of Los Angeles on Wednesday, rattling nerves across the region but causing no serious damage or injuries.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the moderate quake, which struck at 4:53 p.m. PDT, was centered 15 miles north-northwest of the desert resort community of Borrego Springs, about 133 miles east of Los Angeles.
California Institute of Technology Seismologist Kate Hutton said the 7.2-magnitude quake in April transferred stress to fault zones farther north, triggering the quake that was felt from San Diego to Los Angeles to Las Vegas on Wednesday afternoon.
It was followed by a series of aftershocks and was the latest in a flurry of small to moderate temblors to hit Southern California in the months since a magnitude 7.2 shock erupted along the U.S.- Mexico border on Easter Sunday.
Preliminary information indicates the quake was on the San Jacinto fault, the most seismically active fault in California and one of two that exhibited signs of increased pressure following the Mexico quake, according to a recent airborne analysis by the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
The upshot is that the Easter quake appeared to have decreased the stress on the southernmost San Andreas Fault—slightly lowering the chance of a quake on the mother of California faults.
Geologists have been studying whether the Easter quake made seismic activity along more dangerous fault lines–such as the Whittier and San Andreas faults–more or less likely.
“You can’t predict earthquakes, but our statistics said there would be an increased chance of this happening,” said California Instituted of Technology seismic analyst Anthony Guarino.
Borrego Springs Fire Protection District Captain Miguel Manzano said “it was a pretty strong quake, lasted about 10 to 15 seconds.”
He said his department was unaware of any damage in the community but would be checking the area.
“We did feel it pretty strong,” said John Yzaguirre, manager of the Borrego Springs Resort hotel. “There’s nothing broken but it was really strong, probably one of the strongest ones we’ve felt.”
Jealissia Williams at the Palm Springs Riviera Resort said all the front desk employees evacuated the building, but they were unable to reach guests on their way out.
“We had a guest checking in while it was going and we all had to run out,” Williams said.
