California Earthquake: Mojave Desert Hit By Magnitude 5.5 Tremor, Minor Damage Reported

A magnitude 5.5 earthquake struck near the Mojave Desert, California Wednesday (June 3), and its impact was felt across the state’s southern region, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) said.

The earthquake hit near the small town of Ridgecrest, about 120 miles northeast of Los Angeles, at around 6:32 p.m. The USGS estimated that its epicenter lied 13.6 miles north of the city, in Searles Valley, Associated Press reported.

As per the USGS estimates, a moderate shaking close to level 5 on the Modified Mercalli Intensity Scale was enough to affect the nearby city of Ridgecrest. Wednesday’s tremor slightly surpassed the level but didn't result in any significant damages.

“It’s crazier here with the shaking. We hear the bottles rattling,” Kathy Marisol, a resident of Ridgecrest, told The Press-Enterprise. Some people also recalled having items knocked off shelves.

Christine Knadler, the public affairs director for Caltrans District 9, told The Press-Enterprise that small rocks from an open highway sinkhole undergoing repairs tumbled onto Highway 178 in Poison Canyon, the route that connects Ridgecrest and Trona.

There were no immediate reports of major damages or injury in Searles Valley as well.

Seismologist Lucy Jones tweeted that the earthquake was a “large late aftershock” of the magnitude 7.1 quake that struck on July 5, 2019, after a magnitude 6.4 foreshock jolted the region just a day ago. The quake gravely damaged facilities on the nearby Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake, and largely affected communities of Trona and Ridgecrest. Jones noted that the severe earthquake was followed by several aftershocks, with a few reaching the magnitude-5 level.

This time, however, there were no reports of large-scale damages in Trona or Barstow, San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department spokeswoman Jodi Miller, told The Press-Enterprise.

The quake also shook buildings in downtown Los Angeles and some high-rise constructions in downtown Las Vegas.