BAKERSFIELD, Calif. — A magnitude 5.8 earthquake shook the area north of Ridgecrest strong enough that it could be felt throughout the Bakersfield area Wednesday.
According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the tremor struck around 10:40 a.m. in south-southeast of Lone Pine. It was followed by several aftershocks ranging from 2.5 to 4.4 within the first 20 minutes.
Several Bakersfield residents said they felt when the quake hit.
- RELATED: Earthquake hits north of Ridgecrest
- RELATED: 4.6 magnitude aftershock reported near Ridgecrest, California
One Bakersfield resident told 23ABC she was at the post office walking to her car when she felt it. "It was pretty sudden," she said.
"All of a sudden I just felt the shake and it made me wonder where the epicenter was," she said. "I always wonder if I'm going to be in a position where I can't be fully prepared to grab a structure if I need to if the earthquake is really big."
This earthquake coming almost a year after the devastating 7.1-magnitude and 6.4-magnitude struck the area of Ridgecrest, and reminds residents about the importance of being prepared for tremors. One of the ways many people have tried to be prepared is by following alerts and warnings for earthquakes like ShakeAlert.
Yet for Wednesday's tremor, many residents said they didn't receive the alert until nearly a minute after the quake happened.
"I was confused because when it went off, and I was like 'well is it going to come or did it already come?'," said Bakersfield resident Jerica Hedge "Because it said take cover. So I was like well what do we do now?"
The alert hitting people's phones as a warning, suggesting people "Drop, Cover, Hold On. Protect yourself now."
"The thing that's scary with earthquakes is you don't get a lot of warning."
The 5.8 quake Wednesday comes only two days after a magnitude-4.6 hit the same area. Expert Seismologist Dr. Lucy Jones now calling that 4.6 quake a foreshock to Wednesday's tremor.
NO!!! The M4.6 was a foreshock to this event. We don't know if an even bigger quake could be coming. Like EVERY quake, there is a 5% chance of something bigger. https://t.co/6Gch5tF4sf
— Dr. Lucy Jones (@DrLucyJones) June 24, 2020
Snap. Correction: the original tweet had the *wrong ShakeMap*. Sorry for the confusion. Here is a corrected version.
— Men-Andrin Meier (@seismotologist) June 24, 2020
Thank you @TTremblingEarth for pointing this out. pic.twitter.com/9imVmAMkJB
"We don't know if an even bigger quake could be coming. Like every quake, there is a 5% chance of something bigger," Dr. Jones tweeted.
Jones tweeted earlier this week that these quakes are hitting about 20 miles north of the northern edge of the Ridgecrest aftershock zone and are not directly related to the fault that the 7.1 hit last year. Jones said preliminary focal mechanism suggests this could be on the Sierra Nevadan frontal fault.
The 5.8M quake in Lone Pine struck with a depth of 2.9 miles and has had over 12,000 responses reported to the USGS.
If you felt the 5.8M quake Wednesday, let us know and send us your shaking video at news@kero.com
