A 5.5 magnitude earthquake recorded Wednesday evening near Ridgecrest, some 120 miles northeast of Los Angeles, was widely felt throughout Southern California.
The temblor, which struck at 6:32 p.m., was an aftershock to a series of quakes that occurred in the Ridgecrest area last July 4 and 5, the largest of which had a magnitude of 7.1, said sismologist Lucy Jones, formerly of the U.S. Geological Survey.
“These are common,” she tweeted.
Caltech seismologist Zachary Ross said in a Twitter post that Wednesday evening’s quake is considered an aftershock “because the rate of events per day is still way above the rate before the (July) sequence started.”
The quake was centered 10.5 miles south of Searles Valley and 13.6 miles east of Ridgecrest. Two more shakers in the magnitude 3.0 range were recorded within 40 minutes of the 5.5 magnitude temblor.
There were no immediate reports of damage.