Shake, Rattle, and Roll – Earthquakes! January 11, 2010

Over the past two days California has been experiencing a lot of seismic activity.  Yesterday at about 4:27 p.m. PST a 6.5 magnitude quake struck offshore in Northern California approximately 30 miles from the cities of Ferndale and Eureka.  This massive quake was felt in Northern California, Nevada, and in Oregon.  Fortunately, this quake caused no injuries or death and only minor damage.  Since that quake there have been hundreds of measurable aftershocks in the vicinity of the large quake.  Further, there was 4.1 quake on the Mexican border at 10:35 p.m. PST which was felt to be an aftershock of the magnitude 5.9 quake that hit a few weeks ago on December 30th.  So what does all this shaking mean for the United States and the State of California.  One can only speculate that it is a precursor to an even bigger quake or that it is the earth letting off pressure in areas of well know and active faults.  Whatever the case it is a reminder to Californians to always be prepared for emergencies whether they be from earthquakes, fire, mudslides, floods, and even tsunamis!

Thanks to Breitbart.com for the update:  http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D9D57GDG3&show_article=1

For more information on earthquakes:

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/index.php

or on California Quakes in particular:

http://www.data.scec.org/