A magnitude 4.3 earthquake shook Los Angeles

A magnitude 4.3 earthquake shakes Los Angeles as a “significant” earthquake shakes the city

A magnitude 4.3 earthquake shook the city of Trona, 120 miles north of Los Angeles.
The quake struck at about 2.20 am local time and was felt in the city center
The quake was strong enough to trigger a warning system, but no damage was reported
California and Nevada suffer about 25 earthquakes of similar magnitude each year

By Chris Pleasure for MailOnline

Posted: 12:19, 26 May 2022 | Updated: 12:55, 26 May 2022

A magnitude 4.3 earthquake shook Los Angeles today, with a magnitude earthquake shaking the city.

The quake struck near the town of Trona, about 120 miles north of LA, shortly after 2:20 a.m. Thursday, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

The quake was felt in the city center and was strong enough to activate the US warning system, which detects “significant” quakes.

A magnitude 4.3 earthquake shook California early Thursday, about 120 miles north of Los Angeles (highlighted in blue)

The closest city to Thursday’s quake was Ridgecrest, 14 miles to the west, although no immediate damage was reported.

An average of 25 earthquakes with a magnitude between 4.0 and 5.0 occur annually in California and Nevada, according to a recent three-year sample.

Magnitude is a measure of the distance displaced at a fault during an earthquake and the force that would be required to move it.

The scale is usually preferred today over the older Richter scale because it is better at measuring both very small and very large tremors.

Most earthquakes that occur have a magnitude of 2.5 or less, which means they are unlikely to be felt, but can be captured by scientific instruments.

Those with a magnitude between 2.5 and 5.5 – such as Thursday’s earthquake – are likely to be felt and could cause damage.

Scientists estimate that about half a million such earthquakes occur worldwide each year.

The most damaging quakes are eight or more on the scale, such as the Tohoku earthquake, which hit Japan in 2011 with a magnitude of nine.

The quake was strong enough to trigger a tsunami that killed more than 20,000 people.

It also caused the collapse of the Fukushima nuclear power plant, which led to an evacuation, and the area was still deserted today.