There were multiple fissures that broke the ground in the Mojave Desert in southern California on Thursday and Friday after two major M6.4 and M7.1 earthquakes struck the area.
The power of nature is amazing… And these deep fissures near Ridgecrest, California are just terrifying!
On the Fourth of July, people from Los Angeles to Las Vegas felt the ground shake. Books fell off library shelves, trees collapsed, and cracks spidered through building walls and highway asphalt.
Fissure near Ridgecrest, Calif., after 6.4 scale quake this week. USGS says a 9.1 scale Cascadia quake in Oregon would release 11,200 times more energy. Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images . #orleg #orpol https://t.co/18fHGAW1uu pic.twitter.com/QkKyHnr53Y
— Gary Warner (@BendStateBureau) July 6, 2019
The magnitude 6.4 earthquake was centered in the California city of Ridgecrest, about 175 miles northeast of Long Beach. It ended a five-year drought in California’s seismic record: Before yesterday, the ground had not shook in the state since a magnitude 6 quake struck Napa in August 2014, causing $1 billion in damages.
Then, a 7.1 magnitude quake centered about 11 miles north of Ridgecrest struck at 8:19 p.m. Friday, rattling the Kern County city of 27,000 and the nearby small town of Trona in San Bernardino County.
Check out this fissure near the site of last night’s magnitude 7.1 earthquake outside Ridgecrest. Sky5 was overhead late this morning. Full coverage at https://t.co/UH88UcfZm0 pic.twitter.com/ykTfKCr3Ao
— KTLA (@KTLA) July 6, 2019
The area appears to have taken the brunt of the damage, which includes major cracking on the State Route 178, at least one collapsed building and a fissure that stretched across the Mojave Desert.
GROUNDBREAKING: SKY2 captured a large earth fissure that formed after Friday’s 7.1-magnitude earthquake near Ridgecrest https://t.co/jEruFjVyKv pic.twitter.com/dFlIGDhntm
— CBS Los Angeles (@CBSLA) July 6, 2019
Both major earthquakes have created large and very impressive cracks in the ground of the dry Mojave Desert. The power of nature is somehow very creepy!
[Twitter, Global News, KTLA]
Its incredible the forces of nature that can be released by man adding 0.0016% of CO2 to the atmosphere. Let us all stop breathing for a day to fix this problem.