Huntington Beach, CA – At 3:39 AM, an earthquake just 3 miles off the shore of Huntington Beach shook things up a bit. Southern California residents recovering from Easter Sunday fun were reportedly awakened by a 3.1 earthquake just of the coast at 3:39am. While the quake wasn’t large, it was short and quick making it fell larger than it really was.
The US Geological Survey and CalTech rated the tremor a IV on the “shakemap” on a scale of 1-10+. The map located the fault like movement just 3 miles from downtown Huntington Beach, just over a mile off shore.
While very little damage is likely, the UCERF3 supercomputer model claims an 7% chance of a major earthquake, likely started on the San Andreas Fault in the next 30 years. The UCERF3 model shows dozens of minor faults all around the state of California with the chances of an earthquake on any of these faults ranging from less than 1% to 7%
The average time between major shakers has been revised from 4.7 years to 7 years. Since the last “major” quake was Northridge in 1994, many experts are concerned that California is over due for a major shake up. One model predicts as many as 18,000 fatalities and as many as 700,000 people could be displaced from their homes with $2.5 Billion in total damage.
While this earthquake didn’t appear to pose any hazard, any offshore quake can create the potential for large waves or Tsunami’s is the movement is slow and steady enough. Better early warning systems are being tested including the new “Shake Alert”.
Did you feel a little shake up at 3:39 am today? Tell us about it?
Earthquake Map
