Aftershocks keep rattling: More than 70 measuring 4.0+ since Ridgecrest earthquakes

It’s been more than a week since two of the largest earthquakes to hit Southern California in nearly two decades hit, and the aftershocks keep coming.

A magnitude 4.2 earthquake Monday morning struck about 25 miles northwest of the July 5 magnitude 7.1 quake.

There have been more than 70 earthquakes of magnitude 4 and greater since July 4, when a magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck on Independence Day; a day later, a much larger magnitude 7.1 earthquake hit.

The earthquake at 1:38 a.m. occurred in the northwestern section of Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake.

The closest towns nearest to the earthquake, Ridgecrest and Trona, both about 30 miles southeast of the epicenter, were calculated by the U.S. Geological Survey to have felt shaking on the Modified Mercalli Intensity Scale of between 1 and 2 — either so faint it wasn’t felt, or “weak” shaking that it might have only been felt by a few people, even those sitting still.

The town of Lone Pine is about 40 miles northwest of the epicenter. The shaking at the remote epicenter, just northwest of Sugarloaf Mountain within the borders of the naval air weapons station, was moderate, or intensity level 5.

Thousands of aftershocks have already been reported, and scientists said last week they expect thousands more — about 34,000 over the next six months.

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