'Not Terribly Surprising': Experts Weigh In On Area Where 6.0 Quake Hit Thursday
WALKER (CBS13) - Thursday's 6.0 earthquake was felt far and wide. A UC Davis professor is explaining why there's more to the impact than many understand.
Some in Mono County were still cleaning up Friday. The County sits on top of the Antelope Valley fault line. When that fault line ruptured, it took many off guard. In fact, a flea market had extreme damage as work from artists around the world fell to the ground and shattered.
"It just felt like it would lift the building back up and slam it back down," said Victoria Victor.
The market sits at the epicenter of Thursday's quake, where people felt multiple aftershocks.
"And so, because the mountains are growing, it's not unusual to get earthquakes like this," said Professor John Rundle with the UC Davis Department of Earth and Space Science.
Professor Rundle says although it more than 150 miles from Sacramento, it's understandable that the 6.0 quake was felt as far west as the Bay Area and across the San Joaquin Valley.
"Not terribly surprising because as I mentioned, basically we live on a big pile of sedimentary rock. And the waves get into the sedimentary basin and they bounce around and build up in intensity and that's why we feel it," said Rundle.
It prompted rockslides in an area with a whole network of faults on the eastern side of the Sierra where earthquakes are actually common. In fact, a widely trusted public authority on quakes, Dr. Lucy Jones, says it's a spot often studied by seismologists.
"Historically we've seen a lot of earthquakes in the eastern California Shear Zone and in the last couple of years we've had a lot," said Dr. Jones.
It's common but devastating as Victoria is left picking up the pieces in Walker.
"I never expected one like that up here," said Victoria.
Hopefully they'll get a break. Dr. Jones says there's only a 5% to 10% chance this is a foreshock to something bigger.
