Just outside the far reaches of the L.A. Basin, the cities of Temecula and Murrieta sit just north of the San Diego County line. Last night, Los Angeles was hit with a 3.5 magnitude earthquake, but the trembler was too small for most folks in the southwest corner of Riverside County to notice. Still, the quake is news, because "The Big One" is long overdue.
The rumbling began at 9:17 p.m. Pacific time. The earthquake was at a depth of 6 miles.
Considering that California is full of extremist environmentalists, speculation by a bunch of folks suggested the proximity of the earthquake to oil fields may have been due to oil drilling in the area. According to the Los Angeles Times, however, Dr. Lucy Jones, a USGS seismologist, wrote on Twitter that the quake occurred near the Newport-Inglewood fault and at a depth "way below the oil fields."
"The focal mechanism matches the Newport Inglewood fault which was producing [earthquakes] long before we were pumping oil," Jones wrote.
The epicenter was about 2,000 feet from that of a magnitude 2.5 earthquake which was reported at 4:35 p.m. The smaller quake was a foreshock that typically precedes larger seismic activity, Jones said. A 1.3 magnitude afterschock occurred at 10:37 p.m.
Emergency services went into earthquake mode, and the Los Angeles Fire Department surveyed the area just in case the quake caused any damage. No damage was identified.
Californians live through earthquakes all of the time, so there is not really much concern regarding this quake, aside from it being a reminder that we live in earthquake country, and it has been a very long time since we've had a severe episode.
-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary
The rumbling began at 9:17 p.m. Pacific time. The earthquake was at a depth of 6 miles.
Considering that California is full of extremist environmentalists, speculation by a bunch of folks suggested the proximity of the earthquake to oil fields may have been due to oil drilling in the area. According to the Los Angeles Times, however, Dr. Lucy Jones, a USGS seismologist, wrote on Twitter that the quake occurred near the Newport-Inglewood fault and at a depth "way below the oil fields."
"The focal mechanism matches the Newport Inglewood fault which was producing [earthquakes] long before we were pumping oil," Jones wrote.
The epicenter was about 2,000 feet from that of a magnitude 2.5 earthquake which was reported at 4:35 p.m. The smaller quake was a foreshock that typically precedes larger seismic activity, Jones said. A 1.3 magnitude afterschock occurred at 10:37 p.m.
Emergency services went into earthquake mode, and the Los Angeles Fire Department surveyed the area just in case the quake caused any damage. No damage was identified.
Californians live through earthquakes all of the time, so there is not really much concern regarding this quake, aside from it being a reminder that we live in earthquake country, and it has been a very long time since we've had a severe episode.
-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary
No comments:
Post a Comment