Last Friday , a hefty earthquake throw off the ground in California . The 7.1 - order of magnitude seismic consequence happened near the town of Ridgecrest , stimulate extensive wrong and some minor injuries , but fortuitously no human death . It was the strong quake record in the State for 20 year , so strong in fact that the fissure it farm has been photographedfrom space .
The satellite images were amass byPlanet Labswho have a fleet of hundreds of artificial satellite that compile images of the Earth ’s surface every day . This is utilitarian to many private and public administration , and , in this face , give us a bird’s - middle view of the fracture produced by the earthquake .
The quake was the largest one in the current seismic cloud , hitting at 8.19pm local time just outside Ridgecrest , which is located roughly 240 klick ( 150 miles ) north - eastern United States of Los Angeles . It was quite shallow , happening at just 0.9 kilometre ( 0.56 air mile ) below the Earth ’s surface . It was preceded by a sizable foreshock measure out 6.4 in order of magnitude , which come a mean solar day and a half before and came from deeper within the Earth .
Since that initial quake , seismographers in the region have registeredover 6,500 earthquakes . The vast bulk were only foot up by instruments , although over 360 of them were felt , more or less intensely , by people . Out of those , a handful were magnitude 5 or higher . Those can definitely be felt by people and can even damage construction .
While local remain interest , it is unlikely that another major quake will take place in the immediate future . TheUnited States Geological Surveyhas put out its aftershock forecast and based on the absolute frequency and intensity of the quakes , the chance that an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.1 or higher will shine in the next hebdomad is less than 1 percent .
The quakes are centralize in a serial of faults around the area , which are unconnected and quite a aloofness from the San Andreas Fault , the long ( 1,200 kilometers/745 miles ) in the state . Many are concerned that an even more knock-down earthquake grow from the San Andreas Fault could strike in the future tense and have devastating consequences . Unfortunately , predicting seism is beyond our current capabilities .
