6.9 quake strikes 50 miles offshore Eureka, CA

This is the third 6.+ quake today along the coast, two northern, one southern.

For reference, 6.9 is the same magnitude as the 1989 Loma Prieta quake that took out the Bay Bridge and Cypress freeway.

KTVU.com

EUREKA, Calif. —

A massive 6.9-magnitude earthquake hit off the coast of Northern California Sunday evening, 50 miles west of Eureka, Calif., according to the USGS.

The earthquake was recorded at around 10:18 p.m. Pacific and KTVU viewers say they felt it as far away as Redwood City.

"Felt the Eureka earthquake all the way down here in Redwood City. Friends up there say shaking lasted 30-60 seconds," wrote viewer Kristopher Rowberry on KTVU's Facebook page.

USGS seismologist Susan Hoover says more than 300 people have reported feeling the temblor on their website as of 10:49 p.m., according to the Associated Press.

By 11:15 p.m., that number had increased to 1300 people.

Mike Meltzer, a bartender at the Hotel Ivanhoe in Ferndale (in Humboldt County, the county nearest to the quake's epicenter), told KTVU that the quake rolled for around 10 seconds.

"I've been through a number of these," said Meltzer. "It wasn't a jolter; it was a wave."

He said the extent of the damage from the quake was a football and a bottle falling over.

As of 10:48 p.m. there were no reports of injuries and a tsunami warning had not been issued.

As of 11 p.m., five aftershocks were recorded by the USGS, which had magnitudes of 3.4, 3.5, 3.4, 4.6 and 2.9 accordingly.

This story will be updated when more details become available.

March 9, 2014 at 11:35 PM Cal OES: So far, no reports of problems after 6.9mag earthquake off coast near Eureka. No tsunami expected.

March 9, 2014 at 11:09 PM A witness reporting from Eureka: "It lasted what seemed like a long time and progressively got stronger. The house rattled and shook quite a bit but amazingly nothing fell and the power didn't go out like the one of about the same size."

March 9, 2014 at 10:57 PM Several aftershocks have been registered, ranging from M 3.4 to M 4.5

March 9, 2014 at 10:44 PM There is NO tsunami threat!

Looks like California lucked out once again, and has yet to slide into the Pacific.

Boy was my mailbox full of stuff this AM.
I wouldn't worry about Calif going out to sea. Its more like western Calif will be passing eastern Calif in some tens of millions of years as the Pacific plate slide NW and the American Plate slides SE.

As long as these larger quakes occur and release stress, its good tsunamis aside.

Isn't the San Andreas fault more prone to "snapping" than to slow releases? I was under the impression that the movement of other plates around it would simply increase the likelihood of another "snap". No?

basically that's what earthquakes are. A normal complex transcurrent fault will quietly slip and slip until it hits a snag at a different kind of cross fault or rock type an then the pressure builds and builds until it gives catastrophically.

It's been a long time since the San Andreas last snapped. I think it's overdue, isn't it?

The Eureka area is where three plates converge offshore so they are under constant contention trying to slip past each other or on top of each other.


The San Andreas slips several inches each year, when it is quiet, it gets worrisome. The southern segment has been especially quiet.

In the Bay Area, focus has been on the Hayward and Calavaras faults. They are both way overdue.

Its only worrisome if stress builds up, otherwise its just a smooth slippage where faults grind along their planes of movement.
Theres tens of crosscurrent faults and each resolves its stress buildup and these are monitored by microseismic stations all over the place.(Many of these USGS stations are actually supported by CalDOT and the building industry).
Rebuilding itself is one of Califs biggest indutries

there are a number of seismic strain gages and micoseism tations that record and from which USGSand the Cal GS run models which attempt to predict. I get P/S ratio curves fom GS that , whenever the PvS and L waves cross due to some degeree of solution (Solifluction) the P waves actually slow down and this can preceed a big one. I think ed have about several hours notice for another Hayward

M5.1 - OFF THE COAST OF OREGON

Preliminary Earthquake Report
Magnitude 5.1
Date-Time
12 Mar 2014 00:31:44 UTC
11 Mar 2014 15:31:45 near epicenter
11 Mar 2014 18:31:44 standard time in your timezone
Location 44.323N 129.149W
Depth 10 km
Distances
403 km (249 mi) WNW of Barview, Oregon
410 km (254 mi) WNW of Coos Bay, Oregon
467 km (289 mi) W of Dallas, Oregon
469 km (290 mi) W of Corvallis, Oregon
489 km (303 mi) W of Salem, Oregon