Savana Robinson via AP
A 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck off California on Thursday morning, briefly triggering a tsunami warning for the coast of Northern California and southern Oregon.
The quake occurred at around 10:44 a.m. and originated about 62 miles west of Ferndale, California, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
The tsunami warning was issued for coastal areas from Davenport, California, to the border between Douglas and Lane counties in Oregon. The Tsunami Warning Center canceled the warning at about 11:55 a.m.
In Humboldt County, the area on land closest to the epicenter, about 10,000 people lost power, but no injuries or deaths were reported.
Some Californians scrambled to get to higher ground after today's tsunami warning was issued, but a damaging wave never materialized. That sequence of events suggests that the warning system needs improvement, said Lori Dengler, an expert on tsunamis and the Mendocino fault zone, where this quake occurred.
Officials with @Cal_OES are actively responding to the earthquakes this morning in Northern California.
— Governor Newsom (@CAgovernor) December 5, 2024
Californians should follow guidance from local emergency responders. Get earthquake safety tips ➡️ https://t.co/gIKZPSxNaV https://t.co/Hf8DjEN3aj
The U.S. Tsunami Warning Center issued the tsunami alert at 10:49 a.m. PT, then canceled it more than an hour later, at 11:54 a.m. PT.
“We need to work hard at reducing unnecessary alerts,” said Dengler, an emeritus professor in geology at California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt. “We need to know within 5 to 10 minutes if a tsunami was produced, and at present, it was kind of crazy having a tsunami warning in place for so long.”
NOAA uses a network of buoys and seafloor sensors, called DART, to help detect tsunamis. Dengler said the system needs to be expanded to give forecasters a better chance of receiving the data they need to make quicker and more reliable decisions about tsunami forecasts.
“The closest DART systems are hundreds of miles away” from today's earthquake epicenter, Dengler said. “You really need more ocean bottom instruments to detect what’s happening near the source quickly.”
Shake alerts in the USGS's earthquake early warning system were delivered as far north as Lincoln City, Oregon, and as far south as Salinas, California, the agency said.
"System was activated and performed as designed. Still trying to ascertain how much warning people received," the USGS said.
There were no immediate reports of any damage.
The earthquake was felt as far south as San Francisco, where residents felt a rolling motion for several seconds. As Thursday afternoon, at least 40 aftershocks have been recorded by USGS in Northern California following
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