5.5 magnitude quake rocks southern California at shallow depth – USGS

A 5.5 magnitude quake has struck southern California, 189km (117.5 miles) northeast of Los Angeles, with residents reporting tremors nearly 200 miles away.

The jolt was felt in Ridgecrest – a city 120 miles (193km) from San Bernardino, around Searles Valley – on Wednesday night, with the United States Geological Survey (USGS) reporting a shallow depth of 6.9 kilometers. There have been no reports of damage or injuries as of yet.

Netizens said shaking could be felt as far away as Culver City, a suburb of Los Angeles located several hundred miles south of the quake’s epicenter.

As the coronavirus pandemic continues to claim lives in the US and a wave of intense demonstrations and unrest over police brutality sweeps countless cities, some people took to social media to slam nature itself for being tone-deaf to everyone’s feelings.

Ridgecrest has been near the epicenter of more than one major earthquake, including one in 1995 and a series of quakes in July 2019. According to one local seismologist, the jolt on Wednesday was an aftershock from last year's string of quakes, which reached a magnitude of 7.1 at its peak and has produced a number of smaller tremors since.

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