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7 earthquakes, including a magnitude 4.4, strike Northern California
- Thread starter gsbslut
- Start date
7 quakes, including a magnitude 4.4, strike Northern California
www.sfgate.com
A series of earthquakes were recorded in Belden, California, Thursday and Friday.
USGS
While a magnitude 4.8 earthquake near New York City was felt by hundreds of thousands of people in the Northeast on Friday morning, two quakes in the magnitude 4.0 range that hit a remote area of Northern California within seconds of one another Thursday were mostly unnoticed.
There’s a reason why: The Northeast temblor hit in a highly populated area, while the California ones struck near a town with a population of some two dozen people.
The first California quake, with a magnitude of 4.2, struck in Plumas County near the small mountain town of Belden at 6:34 p.m.; only 24 seconds later, a magnitude 4.4 tremor struck at the same location, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Five aftershocks followed Thursday and Friday, including three over magnitude 2.5.
“The Earth stores up energy, so something like this is certainly possible,” said Robert de Groot, a coordinator for the USGS ShakeAlert earthquake early warning system.
Both earthquakes triggered the early warning system designed to detect significant earthquakes seconds before they happen. The system sends out alerts to mobile phones if an earthquake is expected to be magnitude 4.5 or above, de Groot said. On Thursday, the system estimated that the second quake would be magnitude 4.5 or above, so text messages were sent to people in the greater Belden area, he explained.
“Our ShakeAlert system was quick, and it was able to pick up two earthquakes within 24 seconds of one other, which is a really important test of what it does,” he said.
Using the USGS Felt Report, 664 people reported feeling the magnitude 4.2 quake, and 1,756 people reported feeling the 4.4 one. By comparison, more than 160,000 people reported the 4.8 East Coast quake to the USGS. The Felt Report doesn’t capture everyone who experienced shaking in these quakes, but it can help provide some insight into how widely a quake was felt.
The California quakes struck in a remote area of the Sierra Nevada with more trees than people. The big city of Sacramento is about 130 miles south of Belden, and while some people felt the quake in the California capital, not everyone did. The New Jersey quake hit in one of the mostly highly populated areas of the country.
What’s more, a magnitude 4.8 temblor is significantly larger than a 4.4 one. Earthquake magnitude is measured on a logarithmic scale, meaning that each whole number increase on the scale represents a tenfold increase in magnitude, according to the USGS.
“4.8 is on the order of being at least twice as large as a 4.4,” de Groot said. “It releases at least twice as much energy. More people are going to feel it.”
www.sfgate.com
A series of earthquakes were recorded in Belden, California, Thursday and Friday.
USGS
While a magnitude 4.8 earthquake near New York City was felt by hundreds of thousands of people in the Northeast on Friday morning, two quakes in the magnitude 4.0 range that hit a remote area of Northern California within seconds of one another Thursday were mostly unnoticed.
There’s a reason why: The Northeast temblor hit in a highly populated area, while the California ones struck near a town with a population of some two dozen people.
The first California quake, with a magnitude of 4.2, struck in Plumas County near the small mountain town of Belden at 6:34 p.m.; only 24 seconds later, a magnitude 4.4 tremor struck at the same location, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Five aftershocks followed Thursday and Friday, including three over magnitude 2.5.
“The Earth stores up energy, so something like this is certainly possible,” said Robert de Groot, a coordinator for the USGS ShakeAlert earthquake early warning system.
Both earthquakes triggered the early warning system designed to detect significant earthquakes seconds before they happen. The system sends out alerts to mobile phones if an earthquake is expected to be magnitude 4.5 or above, de Groot said. On Thursday, the system estimated that the second quake would be magnitude 4.5 or above, so text messages were sent to people in the greater Belden area, he explained.
“Our ShakeAlert system was quick, and it was able to pick up two earthquakes within 24 seconds of one other, which is a really important test of what it does,” he said.
Using the USGS Felt Report, 664 people reported feeling the magnitude 4.2 quake, and 1,756 people reported feeling the 4.4 one. By comparison, more than 160,000 people reported the 4.8 East Coast quake to the USGS. The Felt Report doesn’t capture everyone who experienced shaking in these quakes, but it can help provide some insight into how widely a quake was felt.
The California quakes struck in a remote area of the Sierra Nevada with more trees than people. The big city of Sacramento is about 130 miles south of Belden, and while some people felt the quake in the California capital, not everyone did. The New Jersey quake hit in one of the mostly highly populated areas of the country.
What’s more, a magnitude 4.8 temblor is significantly larger than a 4.4 one. Earthquake magnitude is measured on a logarithmic scale, meaning that each whole number increase on the scale represents a tenfold increase in magnitude, according to the USGS.
“4.8 is on the order of being at least twice as large as a 4.4,” de Groot said. “It releases at least twice as much energy. More people are going to feel it.”
any shake below 6.9 is nothing to fret about.
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