By The Associated Press |
LOS ANGELES—A quake with a magnitude as large as 7.1 jolted much of California, cracked buildings, set fires, broke roads and caused several injuries, with 11 times more force than an apparent foreshock that rattled the same area a day earlier.
It hit at 8:19 p.m. and was centered 11 miles from Ridgecrest in the same areas where the previous quake hit. But it was felt as far north as Sacramento, as far east as Las Vegas and as far south as Mexico.
The quake—preceded by Thursday’s 6.4-magnitude temblor in the Mojave Desert—was the largest Southern California temblor in at least 20 years and was followed by a series of large and small aftershocks.
Early magnitude estimates of the quake wavered between 6.9 and 7.1, according to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). It was about 11 times more forceful than Thursday’s tremor, the USGS said.
The area in and around Ridgecrest, already trying to recover from the previous temblor, took the brunt of the damage.
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