Northern California earthquake felt in Fresno

Thursday, December 5, 2024 10:51PM PT
FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- The earthquake and its aftershocks in Northern California were felt for hundreds of miles, even in Fresno.

On Thursday, Action News received video of signs and lights swinging at the Whole Foods over at Fresno's Fig Garden Village.

But closer to the epicenter the quake forced evacuations and caused damage to some homes and stores.

Thousands are now without power in Humboldt County and Governor Gavin Newsom has declared a state of emergency.

There was reports of damage to stores and homes.



Aftershocks were felt inland and along Highway 1 for hundreds of miles, and Across multiple county lines.

In Ferndale, products were thrown from store shelves, creating a mess and financial losses.

There are also reports of some homes that have come off their foundations in the Eel River Valley region.

And in the town of Rio Dell, south of Eureka, crews are now discovering serious damage such as this large crack in the road.

Video from Eureka shows a Christmas tree shaking and pets running for safety, likely confused as the ground moved below them.



One seismologist says this earthquake is one of about seven or eight of this size or larger in the last one hundred years.

He explained the movement of the earthquake... and why a Tsunami warning was issued and then cancelled.

"This earthquake is an effect of the cascading obduction zone. The Juan de Fuca plates are slipping forward towards a future great earthquake but it also has very little chance of generating a tsunami because the blocks move side by side instead of up and down and it's the up and down motion that generates water motion for a tsunami," said seismologist Chris Goldfinger.

He also explains that sea level change may have some impact, but research is still needed to confirm that.

Goldfinger says it won't be surprising to see a future earthquake similar to this one in Southern California.



"The San Andreas fault is a culprit that everyone knows about; the southern half of it and the northern half of it seem to operate independently," explained Goldfinger.

"The southern half may well be a bit overdo, the northern half which is involved a little bit with this earthquake probably not overdue yet since we have the 1906 earthquake a bit over 100 years ago and the average repeat time for them may be in the neighborhood of 200 years. But definitely the southern part in the LA area is considered by most people to be either due or overdue."

So far, there are no reports of injuries from this earthquake.

You may remember just two years ago a magnitude 6.4 earthquake turned deadly in Humboldt County.

Two people were killed and 17 others were hurt.



That quake damaged roads and buildings and knocked out power to nearly 70,000 people.

Fortunately today's earthquake was further off the coast than the one in 2022.

President Biden has been briefed on this latest quake.

The White House says FEMA resources are ready to go for both California and Oregon if needed.

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