Category Archives: Ridgecrest

California, Disaster, District 8, Earthquake, Fault, Geology, Highways, Inyo County, Ridgecrest, Roads, San Bernardino County, SR-178, Trona, Updates

Ridgecrest – Part 2 Now Online

Part 2 of my Ridgecrest earthquake field trip is now online. This time, I also won’t forget to add a link!

Ridgecrest Earthquakes of July 4-5, 2019 – Part 2
California, Disaster, District 8, Earthquake, Event, Geology, Highways, Ridgecrest, Roads, San Bernardino County, Southern California, SR-178

Ridgecrest – Part 1

Finally posting the photos from my August 22, 2019 Ridgecrest trip. Part 1, which covers the fault rupture, is finally up. Part 2, which will cover the problems in Poison Canyon and Trona, are coming soon!

Ridgecrest Earthquakes of July 4-5, 2019 – Part 1
Earthquake, Geology, Kern County, Ridgecrest, San Bernardino County, Searles Lake, Southern California

M 6.4 near Searles Lake, CA

Seismic activity map of the Ridgecrest / Searles Lake area as of 12:40 pm July 4, 2019.

At 10:33 am this morning, July 4, 2019, there was a Mw 6.4 earthquake centered a few miles northeast of Ridgecrest, California. The focus of the earthquake was mid-range in depth, about 10.7 km deep. So far, there have been numerous aftershocks ranging up to M 4.7 in size at the time of this writing. The earthquake is the largest to strike southern California in some time. The area to the northwest of the epicenter has been subject to earthquake swarms in the past as well, though usually only up to the M 5.0 range in size.

Shakemap from this morning’s earthquake

https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/ci38443183/executive
USGS summary of the earthquake

Due to the size of the earthquake, I would expect there to be a fair amount of damage to buildings in the Searles Lake, Trona, Pioneer Point, Ridgecrest, and Inyokern areas. If you live in any of these areas, let the USGS know about what happened. Your information is greatly appreciated and will help them better understand the effects of earthquakes.

https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/ci38443183/dyfi/intensity
Did you feel it? Report it to the USGS here!