5.0 Earthquake Hits East of Bakersfield
A moderate earthquake rumbled through a sparsely populated area in Kern County on Wednesday, but there were no reports of injury or serious damage.
The magnitude 5.0 temblor occurred at 3:54 p.m. and was centered in Keene, about 23 miles east of Bakersfield, according to the U.S. Geological Survey in Pasadena.
The site is 95 miles from downtown Los Angeles, but officials received reports that the quake was felt as far south as Orange County and east nearly to the Nevada border.
Scientists said the quake was on a different fault from the 6.0 temblor that struck on Tuesday 150 miles to the northwest in the Monterey County community of Parkfield.
“This is actually a new earthquake, this is not an aftershock,” said Anthony Guarino, a seismic analyst for the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. But one may have triggered the other.
Wednesday’s quake was “most likely related to the Parkfield event, but it’s too early to tell exactly how,” said Caltech seismologist Joseph Franck. “When the Parkfield event occurred, it might have re-shifted the stress fields.” That could have put an imminent quake in Kern County “over the top,” he said.
There were more than 500 aftershocks to the Parkfield quake, scientists said, with the two biggest, at 5.0 and 4.5, occurring shortly after 10 a.m.
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