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SAN DIEGO — After a deadly 6.4 magnitude earthquake struck Northern California’s Humboldt County early Tuesday, many San Diegans may be wondering if they could be impacted by the seismic event.
The quake, which occurred near Ferndale, a small community about 210 miles northwest of San Francisco and close to the Pacific coast, killed two people and injured a dozen.
Pat Abbott, a geologist and Professor Emeritus for San Diego State University, spoke to FOX 5 in a television interview about the far-reaching effects of one earthquake upon another.
“Landers Earthquake in the Mojave Desert in 1992: that triggered off a whole chain of reactions to the north, now that I might mention that was the direction the fault moved,” Abbott said. “In this particular case, we have like 700 miles between us (San Diego), this is a 6.4, so I think we (San Diego) are too far away to be directly affected by that.”
Abbott warns that the Humboldt County earthquake may not be over as it could trigger a bigger earthquake, being that it is in “a very active area.”
“It’s a very complex geological area, we call it a triple junction. It’s when the northern end of the San Andreas fault, then an offshore transform fault, then an onshore subduction, so three major geologic boundaries, or mega faults if you will, all meet right in a very small area, so this is a very active area for significant earthquakes,” Abbott said.
Abbott expects aftershocks to be felt in the Humboldt County area for the next several weeks.
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