California was rocked by an earthquake early Friday, marking the fourth to hit the state in over 24 hours.
A magnitude 2.8 was detected 180 miles north of Los Angeles, where fires are blazing, at 3:32am PT, which hit three hours after another 2.8 in San Jose.
The latest earthquake registered a 2.8 magnitude and occurred approximately 15 miles southeast of Avenal at 3:32 a.m.
The US Geological Survey also reported a third 2.8 magnitude San Bernardino County on Thursday and a 3.0 magnitude hit Salton City Wednesday.
The four quakes occurred along the San Andreas fault – the volatile boundary between two tectonic plates: the Pacific plate and the North American plate. It runs 800 miles along the coast of California.
Scientists have said that the West Coast is overdue for a massive quake along the San Andreas fault, which would measure magnitude 8 or higher.
While no injuries or damage was reported, the seismic activity followed a deadly stretch of wildfires in Southern California that began on January 7.
California was rocked by an earthquake early Friday, marking the fourth to hit the state in over 24 hours
Killing at least 25 people, the series of 30 wildfires has been reduced substantially to four fires as of Thursday. Two of the largest remain active.
Both the southern and northern sections of the San Andreas fault have a roughly equal likelihood of generating a high-magnitude earthquake in the next few decades.
The ‘Big One’ would measure an 8.0 magnitude or above, causing roughly 1,800 deaths, 50,000 injuries and $200 billion in damage, according to the Great California Shakeout.
Experts are ‘fairly confident that there could be a pretty large earthquake at some point in the next 30 years,’ Angie Lux, project scientist for Earthquake Early Warning at the Berkeley Seismology Lab, told DailyMail.co
Friday’s quake reached an intensity level of IV on the Community Internet Intensity Map, a level that indicates light shaking.
As of Friday morning, nearly 100 people submitted reports to the USGS, nothing that they had felt the earthquake.
Around the same number of people felt the other three earthquakes in the last few days.
While no injuries or damage was reported, the seismic activity followed a deadly stretch of wildfires in Southern California that began on January 7
Devastation was left behind by the Eaton Fire in a neighborhood on Friday in Altadena, CA, a city that felt Thursday’s earthquake
But earthquake that hit Thursday was just 65 miles away from Los Angeles.
Firefighters are still battling the Palisades Fire , which is the most destructive blaze in the city’s history, as well as the Eaton and Hurst fires. The three other blazes are now fully contained.
The National Weather Service added that the respite for fire-ravaged Los Angeles will be short, with high chances for renewed Red Flag warnings – when ideal fire conditions of high winds and low humidity dominate – starting again on Sunday.
The fires have damaged or destroyed more than 12,000 homes and other structures, and forced as many as 200,000 people from their homes.
Some 82,400 people were under evacuation orders and another 90,400 faced evacuation warnings as of Wednesday, County Sheriff Robert Luna said.
Entire neighborhoods have been leveled, leaving smoldering ash and rubble. Many homes only have a chimney stack left standing.
Some 8,500 firefighters from the western United States, Canada and Mexico have kept the growth of the fires in check for three days.
The Palisades Fire on the west edge of the city held steady at 23,713 acres burned, and containment nudged up to 19 per cent – a measurement of how much of the perimeter was under control. The Eaton Fire in the foothills east of the city stood at 14,117 acres with containment at 45 per cen
