By Jamie Hsiung
Daily Bruin Contributor
Two more small earthquakes shook Southern California around noon
Tuesday. They were just two of the several earthquakes felt in this
area over the past few days.
The first earthquake of the series occurred at 9:53 p.m. Monday,
immediately followed by two others with magnitudes 3.9 and 3.8. On
Tuesday, a 3.6-magnitude struck at 12:23 p.m., followed by a 3.1
tremor four minutes later.
No injuries or property damage from any of the earthquakes was
reported to the Los Angeles Fire Department, said Bob Collis,
public service officer for LAFD.
Jennifer Alexander, a second-year history student, was surprised
to find out that the ground did shake.
“I was walking to class this afternoon when it happened. I
had no idea that anything shook though,” she said.
But the largest of the quakes was felt through most of Los
Angeles and Ventura counties, and even as north as Santa
Barbara.
All of the earthquakes, believed to be aftershocks from the 1994
Northridge earthquake, were centered six to seven miles northeast
of Simi Valley.
According to UCLA seismology professor David Jackson,
aftershocks from original earthquakes can still be felt decades
later. Southern California still gets occasional shaking from the
7.5-magnitude quake that shook Kern County in 1952.
Aftershocks are earthquakes that occur in the same fault line
region as a larger earthquake in the past. They may reach
magnitudes greater than the original quake.
But there’s no cause for alarm, Jackson said.
“It would be really rare for an aftershock to be bigger
than the main quake,” he said.
Instead, he said, the recent series of earthquakes should be
used as a wake-up call for students to be prepared in case of a
disaster.
But some students aren’t overly concerned with safety.
Goro Yoshida, a third-year psychology student, doesn’t
perceive the recent earthquakes as a warning to be prepared.
“I don’t think it’s important. I don’t
care. I don’t think there is going to be anything big in the
future,” she said.
Oren Cohen, a fifth-year geography student, reported that he
felt the Monday night earthquake in his Thousand Oaks apartment
while starting his research paper.
Cohen also felt Tuesday’s earthquake while in the Young
Research Library ““ still trying to start his paper.
With reports from The Associated Press.