A dozen small earthquakes – each one at least 3 in magnitude — rattled the Ridgecrest area overnight, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
The first series of overnight quakes struck between 9 and 36 miles from Ridgecrest in Kern County from 11:18 p.m. Sunday and 1:19 a.m. Monday, according to computer-generated USGS reports. That string of quakes initially included seven, but two of those computer-generated quake reports were rescinded Monday morning after being reviewed by a seismologist, the USGS reported.
The strongest — magnitude 3.7 — was at 1:20 Monday morning. The shallowest one, at 11:18 p.m. Sunday, was almost right at the surface while the deepest, at 18 minutes past midnight Monday, was at 14.9 miles.
Then, beginning at 2:57 a.m., eight more similar temblors were reported, ranging from magnitude-3.0 to 3.6. and ranging in depth from .6 of a mile to 4.9 miles. The last of that second series occurred at 9:22 a.m.
The temblors were all aftershocks to Friday’s 7.1 earthquake.
–City News Service