EQECAT: Likely No Damage From Two California Quakes

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According to EQECAT’s CatWatch on two moderate sized earthquakes in California this week there should be little to no damage is expected.

Two moderate sized earthquakes were felt in California: a magnitude 5.7 in Northern California on May 23 and a magnitude 4.8 in Southern California on May 30. These two earthquakes were unrelated, butb both events were widely felt with little resulting damage, according to EQECAT.

Northern California’s 5.7M earthquake was nearly 10 times larger than the southern event at 4.8M, but the larger quake occurred in a remotely populated area of Northern California.

The May 30 quake in Southern California struck at 7:38 a.m. near Isla Vista, roughly 12 miles from Santa Barbara in a densely populated area. The USGS ShakeMap indicates maximum shaking intensity of VI (strong) on the Modified Mercalli Scale. The USGS PAGER report states that only 2,000 people were exposed to this level of ground shaking. This event was felt throughout the Bakersfield-Los Angeles-San Luis Obispo area.

Roughly 64,000 people were exposed to moderate shaking (MMI V), 170,000 to light shaking (MMI IV) and over 1,200,000 to weak shaking (MMI II – III), according the USGS PAGER report.