The largest Californian quake in twenty years, out in the Mojave. Its two ruptures crossed each other at right angles — a puzzle that reshaped how we think faults connect.
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DownloadThe 2019 Ridgecrest earthquake struck on July 6, 2019, registering magnitude 7.1 (moment magnitude, Mw). Each whole step on the moment-magnitude scale is roughly 32 times more energy, so this released on the order of 45× the energy of a magnitude 6.0 earthquake.
Its epicenter was located near 35.77°N, 117.60°W, at a depth of about 8 km — a shallow crustal earthquake. Shallow earthquakes like this release their energy close to the surface, which is why the shaking near the epicenter was so violent.
An estimated 1 person was killed.