Earthquake of magnitude 6.2 strikes offshore northern California

An earthquake off the coast of Northern California was reported by the United States Geological Survey shortly after noon on Monday. The quake was of 6.2 magnitude.

While the jolt was felt in areas as far as Chico and San Francisco, it occurred near Cape Mendocino near Humboldt County.

California Governer‘s Office of Emergency Services said in a social media post that a tsunami– linked to today’s earthquake– is not expected on the western coast. It further added, “several aftershocks in the magnitude 2.5-4 range continue to impact the region.”

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William Honsal, Humboldt County Sheriff, said that there were no initial reports of any injuries, emergency response teams have been deployed in areas of impact and are currently reviewing the situation. However, broken windows and other minor damages have been reported in some California buildings.

The emergency services office wrote on Twitter, “Cal OES is actively monitoring this recent quake and coordinating closely with local partners in the region to protect communities from any secondary impacts.”

The Humboldt County– located near the border of California and Oregon— has a population of nearly 135,000 spread out in 4,000 square miles, according to reports from CNN. The County is located 270 miles north of San Francisco.

Meanwhile, a series of such earthquakes have been creating a buzz in the United States. Earlier this month, about 40 earthquakes were recorded in succession, all of them ranging between magnitude 3.5 to 5.8. 

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These were also detected off the western coast of the country, off the shore of Oregon’s Newport. However, these occurred about 200-250 miles off the coast causing them to be undetected on land by many.

The Director of the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network at the University of Washington told CNN, “If you had asked me yesterday where on Earth would be most likely to produce a bunch of magnitude 5.0+ quakes in a single day, this would have been high on my list.”