Channel Islands 5.3 Earthquake Rattles Los Angeles and Surrounding Areas

At 12:30pm on April 5th, an earthquake hit the Channel Island coast approximately 38 miles southwest of Ventura, and 85 miles west of Los Angeles County accordingly to the US Geological Survey. The quake was almost 9 miles deep, which is quite heavy for an earthquake in California. The local news stations reported that the shake was felt from west San Fernando Valley, to Woodland HIlls, Thousand Oaks, West of Los Angeles, and furthest, Burbank. At the time, there were no reports of significant damage, or injuries, nor tsunami warnings. It was powerful enough to make it a record: largest quake in Southern California in the last four years according to USGS seismologist Jen Andrews. A few reports of damage, but nothing major, “It might have knocked some things off shelves, but nothing serious,” said Susan Hough, a USGS seismologist at Caltech in Pasadena.” The Los Angeles Fire Department by default went into earthquake mode – taking surveys where firefighters observed highly populated areas, transportation infrastructures, apartment buildings, and power lines. A tweet was later sent to confirm no reports of serious damage or injuries in the city. In 2014, the La Habra quake was shy behind by 5.1, it’s the most recent one close to the size of the Channel Islands shake. Seismologist Lucy Jones tweeted “It was produced by offshore faults that “are part of the system that moves Southern California around a bend of the San Andreas fault” referring to the 5.3 quake as “moderate” in size. “It’s a regular sort of earthquake that we expect somewhere in Southern California,” Jones told KTLA. “Magnitude 5.3 is a size that happens on average about once a year in Southern California.” Southern California residents can disagree otherwise, the size was enough to shake up the surround county’s. Initially, the reported size was 5.0, but was updated to 5.3. The tremblor felt close to a 6.0 to the visitors and park rangers at Channel Islands. Channel Island National park spokeswoman Yvonne Menard tells us that bricks fell off the ranch building on Santa Cruz island, and reported that although both visitors and staff felt it strongly, no one was injured. Jones compares this quake to the 1994 Northridge disaster being almost 50 to 60 greater in energy. Resident took it to social media to post videos of the earthquake from tarzana, San DImas, Long Beach and so on. One Twitter user tweeted “”lamps swinging” and they could “hear the house crack”. Did you feel the earthquake, if you did, please comment and share below where you were at the time!