Earthquake Shakes Central California
A series of earthquakes _ the largest a magnitude-5.1 _ have rattled the Lone Pine area of the eastern Sierra in Central California.
The largest struck about 18 miles southeast of the town of Lone Pine along the east shore of the Owens River at 3:01 a.m.
It was followed within three hours by about a half-dozen smaller quakes between magnitude-3.0 and magnitude-3.5 in the same rural area near Sequoia National Park, about 180 miles northeast of Los Angeles.
Inyo County sheriff’s dispatcher Faith Felton says she felt a slight tremor during the strongest quake. No damages or injuries have been reported.
U.S. Geological Survey geophysicist Randy Baldwin says a couple of quakes with magnitudes of about 5.4 have occurred in the area in recent years.
The last destructive quake to hit the Lone Pine area came in 1872, when a temblor similar in size to the 1906 San Francisco quake killed about 30 people and leveled nearly all buildings.