- LOS ANGELES (AFP) Northern
California was shaken Thursday by a strong earthquake, but there were
no immediate reports of casualties or major damage from the towns nearest
its epicenter.
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- The quake was measured at 6.0 on the Moment Magnitude
scale and was only seven miles (11 kilometers) deep, according to
experts from the US Geological Survey.
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- It was centered off the western Pacific coast some 35
miles from the town of Petrolia, in Humboldt County, but was
strong enough to be felt some 275 miles away in San Francisco, residents
said.
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- "We don't have any reports of injuries or damages
yet," said Jordan Scott, a spokesman for the California emergency
management agency. "We are still gathering information as it is a
pretty recent occurrence."
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- There were also no reports of injuries in Ferndale, a
town some 36 miles from the epicenter that suffered some damage on January
9 when a 6.5-magnitude quake hit.
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- "So far nothing has been reported here. I went around,
and looked down main street at some of our buildings that were affected
in the last one, and I haven't seen any additional damage yet," said
city manager Jay Parrish.
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- "I was surprised it was a 6.0, I thought it was
more like 3.5. It didn't seem that strong to me. Almost everybody felt
it though."
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- It was the same story in Eureka, a nearby town of some
26,000 people that was also affected on January 9.
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- "We have no reports of damage yet. We didn't feel
it as strong as the last one," police spokesman Murl Harphan said.
"I was sitting at my desk here and it gave us a pretty good jolt."
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- The quake occurred in an area known to seismologists
as the Mendocino Triple Junction where three tectonic plates meet
and cause frequent seismic events.
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- Geologists say an earthquake capable of causing widespread
destruction is 99 percent certain of hitting California within
the next 30 years.
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- Studies have said that a 7.8 magnitude quake could kill
1,800 people, injure 50,000 more and damage 300,000 buildings..
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- A 6.7 earthquake in Los Angeles in 1994 left
at least 60 people dead and did an estimated 10 billion dollars damage,
while a 6.9 quake inSan Francisco in 1989 claimed the lives of 67
people.
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