SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA—A 5.4 aftershock earthquake hit Southern California one day after the 6.4 earthquake occurred in the isolated Mojave Desert Thursday, July 4.
On Friday, July 5 at approximately 11:07 a.m., an aftershock with a magnitude of 5.4 occurred in the desolate Searles Valley in Southern California. The quake was 7 kilometers deep and was rated as “very strong” on United States Geological Survey ShakeMap.
Little to no population and area was affected in response to the earthquake, but aftershocks are expected to keep accruing in the next couple of days.
“While it is always possible for large quakes to trigger an even larger quake, most do not. It’s generally not possible to determine whether a given quake will turn out to be a “foreshock” of a larger one… According to our forecast, over the next [week] there is a 9 % chance of one or more aftershocks that are larger than magnitude 6.4. It is likely that there will be smaller earthquakes over the next 1 Week, with 50 to 700 magnitude 3 or higher aftershocks,” said the USGS in a tweet Friday afternoon.
For more details on earthquakes and other natural disasters, visit https://earthquake.usgs.gov/.
