In the next week, Southern California could experience an even stronger earthquake than the 6.4 magnitude tremor that struck on Thursday, experts are warning.
Robert Graves, a seismologist with the U.S. Geological Survey, said there is a 9% chance of another quake greater than 6.4 and a 20% chance of one greater than 5, CNN is reporting. The probabilities drop significantly as time passes.
The powerful Thursday quake struck about 113 miles northeast of Los Angeles, near the city of Ridgecrest. It touched off fires, damaged buildings and forced the evacuation of a hospital.
“This does not make (the Big One) less likely,” seismologist Lucy Jones is quoted by the Los Angeles Times. “There is about a 1 in 20 chance that this location will be having an even bigger earthquake in the next few days, that we have not yet seen the biggest earthquake of the sequence.
And she noted the number of aftershocks the area is experiencing.
“Some aftershocks will probably exceed magnitude 5, which means they’ll probably be damaging,” she said. “The last time we had an earthquake above magnitude 6 in Southern California was in 1999.”
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