A preliminary 5.2-size An earthquake struck Bakersfield and shook it all the way to Los Angeles County.
It happened at approximately 9:09 p.m., about 14.29 miles southwest of Lamont, California, which borders Bakersfield. It’s a relatively rural area about 89 miles north of downtown Los Angeles.
Immediately after the earthquake, the Los Angeles Fire Department deployed helicopters to survey the region for possible damage.
“Our @LAFD has been activated to conduct a routine investigation of the city and assess any damage,” Mayor Karen Bass posted on X. “City teams continue to monitor impacts.”
After conducting the investigation, firefighters found no significant damage to infrastructure or buildings. LAFD received zero reports of injuries within the LA city limits.
According to the USGS, geologists believe there is little to no risk of landslides or liquefaction in the area.
Aftershocks
More than two dozen earthquakes followed the original quake, with magnitudes ranging from 2.5 to 4.5. The aftershocks occurred near Lamont and Grapevine. About 25 percent of aftershocks occur within an hour of the original quake.
The USGS recorded three aftershocks with a magnitude above 4.0. The vast majority of the aftershocks, about 15, were below magnitude 3.0. About nine other earthquakes with magnitudes 3.0 to 3.8 struck the region shortly after the original one.
“That’s quite an active sequence for the very short time since the event,” said seismologist Dr Lucy Jones.
She said the aftershocks were within the range of a typical series of earthquakes.
Cal Tech seismologists weigh in
The United States Geological Survey released a map showing the intensity of the quake in the regions surrounding Lamont. According to the map, the quake was mild in LA County, but between light and moderate near the Lamont epicenter.
Allen Husker, a professor of seismology research at the California Institute of Technology, attributed the LA quake to the basin effect. Basins tend to amplify the quake because of their softer nature.
According to Jones, the quake originated in the southern part of the Central Valley, near the epicenter of the magnitude 7.5 earthquake that struck the region in 1952.
“It doesn’t look like it’s on the same fault line as that earthquake, though,” she added. “It doesn’t look like [recent] “An earthquake is associated with a known fault line.”
Jones believes there is a 5% chance that the 5.2 magnitude quake was a foreshock, similar to any other California quake. There is no evidence that this event is any different.
“As far as the probability of this being a foreshock, we have the same answer for every earthquake: It’s about a 5 percent chance,” she said. “1 in 20 earthquakes that we see in Southern California is followed by something bigger and turns out to be a foreshock within a couple of days.”
The risk of earthquakes being foreshocks decreases dramatically over time.
“A quarter of all foreshocks occur within an hour of the main shock,” Jones said. “By the time we get to three days … the risk is essentially gone.”
