California Rocked by 5.2 Magnitude Earthquake

A 5.2 magnitude earthquake struck southern California on Tuesday evening, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

The temblor struck at 9.09 p.m. on Tuesday, 18 miles southwest of Bakersfield, and was felt across a wide area of southern California. The initial quake was followed by more than a dozen aftershocks, but there have been no reports of damage or casualties.

There is a 99% chance of at least one more aftershock of magnitude of 3 or higher, U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) data showed. The likelihood of a magnitude 5 aftershock was put at 25%, while a level 6 or higher was 3%.

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Tremors were felt at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles during a baseball game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Philadelphia Phillies. Moderate shakes were felt in Arvin, which lasted 1.1 seconds, with light shakes felt in Bakersfield (2.2 seconds), Tehachapi (9.9 seconds) and there were weak shakes in Los Angeles, according to ShakeAlert's preliminary summary.

Although no damage was reported, two lanes of the southbound I-5 Freeway south of Grapevine Road had to be closed while emergency services cleared a boulder in the road, ABC7 Los Angeles reported.The network showed a video of people running out of a local shop as they felt the shaking before several items were thrown from shelves onto the ground.

Seismologist Dr. Lucy Jones, who is a visiting associate in geophysics at Caltech, said: "The location is at the southern end of the Central Valley, so it's very near where we had a magnitude 7.5 in 1952. However, it does not appear to be on the same fault as that earthquake."

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"It doesn't look like this earthquake was associated with any known fault - is our preliminary assessment," she added.

Jones described the aftershocks as a "pretty active sequence."

Footage on social media shows a light fitting attached to the ceiling being rocked back and forth.

Firefighters battling blazes in and around Kern County had to remove their equipment from areas affected the earthquake to prevent damage.

Kern County Fire Department said firefighters were carrying out windshield surveys to assess the damage in different areas.

It posted on X: "As per Kern County Fire Department procedures, firefighters in the area have removed fire equipment out of apparatus bays and will conduct windshield surveys of their districts."

It comes as California continues to struggle with wildfires that have burned hundreds of thousands of acres so far this year.

A fire affecting Kern County, at the 2024 SQF Lightning Complex, east of Johnsdale in Tulare County, was 49 percent contained, as per the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection's (CAL FIRE) most recent update on Monday.

Spanning 92,103 acres, it began on July 13 and has caused the closure of roads, trails and recreation sites.

This year has seen one civilian killed in the 4,886 fires that have struck the state, and 1,026 structures have been destroyed.