After the major earthquake in Humboldt County officials issued a Tsunami Warning for the San Francisco Bay Area but why was it canceled just hours later? Here's what we know.
Temblor CEO and Stanford Geophysics lecturer Ross Stein explains why the NOAA issued then canceled a tsunami warning after Humboldt County earthquake.A major 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Humboldt County near the town of Rio Dell on Thursday prompting officials to issue a Tsunami Warning for much of the Northern California coast including the San Francisco Bay Area.7.
Temblor CEO and Stanford Geophysics lecturer Ross Stein joined ABC7 News to detail what caused the U.S. National Tsunami Warning Center to initially issue that warning and why they ultimately decided to cancel it. "It was a very weird, very shallow earthquake that involved a lot of vertical motion of the seafloor, which tends to produce more tsunamis, and that was the basis for that warning that we all received, but subsequently it turned out to be a larger earthquake, a magnitude 7, but a very typical garden variety event on this northern extension of the San Andreas Fault, which we call the Mendocino Fault Zone.
As for the possibility of a large quake? Stein says that's always possible due to the location of this earthquake. "There is a possibility that something larger can occur, and this region is really the hatchery of large earthquakes in California," said Stein. "It's the most active seismic area in the entire state, just off shore Mendocino, and that's because the San Andreas hangs the left, right at Cape Mendocino. There should be a blinking left turn signal there, and when it does so there's kind of a crunch that goes on in the crust that produces lots of earthquakes.
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Series of major earthquakes strike Humboldt County, tsunami warning canceledA series of major earthquakes struck Humboldt County in Northern California on Thursday morning, causing chaos, especially among coastal communities from the Golden State to Oregon.
Read more »
Live: Series of major earthquakes strike Humboldt County, prompting tsunami warningThe initial magnitude was measured at 6.6, according to the USGS.
Read more »
LIVE: Magnitude 7.0 earthquake strikes Humboldt County, USGS reports; tsunami warning issuedUSGS says that a magnitude 7.0 earthquake has hit Northern California in Humboldt County. A tsunami warning was issued.
Read more »
Bay Area tsunami advisory: What do the different tsunami alerts mean?There are various tsunami warning levels based on the danger to the public. Here is what the National Weather Service says the alerts mean.
Read more »
7.0 magnitude earthquake reported off Northern California coast, tsunami warning canceledThe epicenter is near Petrolia, in Humboldt County, the USGS said.
Read more »
Earthquake live updates: 7.0-magnitude quake rattles West Coast, tsunami warning canceled for California and OregonThis is additional taxonomy that helps us with analytics
Read more »