California Earthquake: Magnitude-6.5 Earthquake Rattles California Coast

There are fresh reports coming in about a major earthquake off the California coast. According to Reuters, this quake measured magnitude 6.8 — with an initial report stating that it was magnitude 6.9. However, a recent tweet by the U.S. Geological Survey has indicated that the earthquake measured M6.5. The tweet can be seen below.

Prelim M6.5 earthquake off the coast of Northern California Dec-8 14:49 UTC, updates https://t.co/ZlCoA29HFL

— USGS Earthquakes (@USGS_Quakes) December 8, 2016

According to the USGS, the earthquake had its epicenter in the Pacific Ocean around 100 miles west of Ferndale, California. At the time of publishing this article, no Tsunami warnings have been issued. The website of the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center has posted details of the earthquake and has added that there is no tsunami warning in effect. It reads as follows.

“There is no Tsunami warning, advisory, watch, or threat in effect.”

We have also posted a screenshot below.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center has also issued a press release confirming that there is no threat of a tsunami. An excerpt from the release reads as follows.

“An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.8 occurred off the coast of Northern California at 1450 UTC on Thursday, December 8 2016. Based on all available data, there is no tsunami threat from this earthquake.”

Currently, there are no reports of any major damage caused by this latest California earthquake. People have however started tweeting out their experiences on social media websites like Twitter and Facebook.

UPDATE: Northern California #earthquake downgraded to 6.5. People report feeling it from San Fran/Bay Area to southern Oregon. #KOMOnews pic.twitter.com/nZus3iuhsA

— Cayle Thompson (@CayleThompson) December 8, 2016

This is the first major earthquake in California since the large magnitude 6.0 South Napa earthquake that was recorded back in 2014. That earthquake resulted in one death and resulted in more than 200 injuries. The estimated damage caused was estimated to be anywhere between the range of $362 million to 1 billion.

Update:

No major damage to property was reported in the hours following the earthquake. There were reports of light shaking from east central Oregon to a few areas located south of San Francisco. The threat of a Tsunami was never present. The earthquake did result in minor inconveniences for commuters in the San Francisco area after Bay Area Rapid Transit trains temporarily stopped and then moved at a reduced speed after authorities received reports about the temblor. This, according to authorities was a precautionary move to ensure the safety of passengers.

Even though it was a fairly large earthquake, the tremors were not strongly felt on land. This was partly owing to the fact that the epicenter of the quake was nearly 100 miles of the California coast. Initial data from the U.S. Geological Survey said that the earthquake was also fairly shallow with a depth of around 6.2 miles. This was also according to them, partly a reason for not resulting in violent shaking further inland. The initial earthquake was followed by a smaller, magnitude 5.0 temblor which was recorded at around 8:32 a.m., local time. The epicenter of this earthquake was located about 108 miles west of Ferndale, less than 20 miles south of Eureka.

More than 2,000 people reportedly “felt” the initial quake. As expected, many of them turned to social media to talk about it. Many people said they were woken up by the shaking. There were some others who were initially worried about a possible tsunami – especially after reports indicated that the epicenter of the earthquake was out in the open seas. However, things did calm down after the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center confirmed that there was no threat of a tsunami.

This major earthquake off the California coast was followed by a much larger magnitude 7.7 earthquake near the Solomon Islands in the South Pacific. There were initial tsunami warnings following this earthquake (which was initially reported to be a magnitude 8.0 temblor). These warnings were in place for several islands dotted across the Pacific -including some parts of Hawaii. However, a few hours after the quake, the tsunami warnings were cancelled.

[Featured Image By AP Photo/Eric Risberg]