Southern California Was Hit With The Biggest Earthquake In 2 Decades

Source: Visions of America LLC / Getty

Southern California Hit With Biggest Earthquake In 20 Years

On Thursday, Southern California was hit with one of the biggest earthquakes the region has experienced in two decades.

The long earthquake, which reportedly lasted between 15 and 20 seconds, measured at 6.4 on the Richter scale. Centered in the Searles Valley near Ridgecrest in San Bernardino County, the quake was felt all the way from from Las Vegas, Nevada to Los Angeles, California, according to reports from CNN.

The last time that an earthquake above magnitude 6 hit the Southern region of California was back in 1999, when the Hector Mine quake measured a whopping 7.1.

Unfortunately, there have been some reports of damage near the epicenter of the quake, including both fires and rock slides. North of Los Angeles, the Kern County Fire Department reportedly responded to over 25 incidents, ranging from fires to medical assistance.

According to reports from the Los Angeles Times, more earthquakes could still be yet to come.

Seismologist Lucy Jones explained that the quake had enough distance from the San Andreas fault “that any impact on the system will be minimal,” but it is possible that stronger earthquakes could still happen.

“This does not make [the Big One] less likely. There is about a 1 in 20 chance that this location will be having an even bigger earthquake in the next few days, that we have not yet seen the biggest earthquake of the sequence,” she revealed.

And just as Jones explained, there have been dozens of aftershocks since the quake–including one registering 5.4-magnitude early Friday morning.

Of course, you can always count on the people of Twitter to run right to their phones after an event like this, which is exactly what happened with regular folk and celebrities alike. Here’s what a few of them had to say after the earthquake: