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Earthquake felt in southeast IWV
If you felt or heard something on Monday that resembled a test on base, it wasn’t. It was an earthquake.
The quake, which hit at 1:21 p.m., registered 4.6 on the Richter scale and was located in the Garlock fault
region, 23 miles east-southeast of Ridgecrest.
Ridgecrest Police Department Sgt. Tony Brown, who was watch commander at the time of the quake, said
no calls about the quake were received at the station. However, he said, the dispatcher did feel it. Dispatcher
Lori Benson “felt a rolling motion,” he said.
“We didn’t feel a thing,” said Captain Steve King of Kern County Fire Department Station 75 in Randsburg.
Neither that station nor Station 74 in Ridgecrest received any calls relating to the event.
Engineer Jake Cagle at KCFD Station 77 in south Ridgecrest, however, reported that the quake “felt like
somebody actually hit the building.” He described it as a real quick jolt. “I went outside to see if the building
had been hit, then asked the other firefighter if he felt that, and he said no.”
Under the U.S. Geological Survey’s website data map “Did you feel it” section, some 67 residents in the
Ridgecrest area reported feeling it also. In fact, the website tallied reports from as far away as Palmdale,
Riverside and Visalia.
Locals who were at China Lake’s Echo Range during the quake were among those left shaken. “There
was a noticeable up-and-down motion accompanied by a booming noise,” said Larry Cosner.
He said that at first he and some of his co-workers thought it might have been a jet crash. “It was definitely
one of the strongest quakes I have ever experienced,” said Cosner, who has spent most of his life in
Ridgecrest, which some term the “Earthquake Capital of the World.”
According to the Southern California Earthquake Data Center’s website, the Garlock Fault is capable of
producing quakes with magnitudes as high as 7.6. A few sizeable quakes have occurred along the fault in
historic times. The most recent sizeable event was a Magnitude 5.7 near Mojave on July 11, 1992.
The only other fault in the region thought capable of producing a higher magnitude quake is the San
Andreas, with an 8.0 probability. For more information, visit the SCEC website at www.data.scec.
org/fault_index/garlock.html
“It’s always better to be prepared,” said Brown. Water, hard-line phones, hand-cranked flashlights and radios
that generate their own power are good to have on hand, he said. “Canned goods — nonperishable — and
bleach to purify your own water, candles and matches, common-sense things.”
Brown advised in the event of a major earthquake to listen to the local radio stations (if they’re on the air), for
necessary emergency information. “If something happened, all our officers would be brought in to assist with
anyone who needed help,” he added.
Brown also noted that “it’s not a matter of if it’s going to happen but when.” Expect the worst and be prepared
for it. “I would like to think our city is prepared.”
The Garlock Fault stretches 155 miles east-northeast from Frazier Park to Death Valley and runs
approximately 12 miles south of Ridgecrest.
The quake, which hit at 1:21 p.m., registered 4.6 on the Richter scale and was located in the Garlock fault
region, 23 miles east-southeast of Ridgecrest.
Ridgecrest Police Department Sgt. Tony Brown, who was watch commander at the time of the quake, said
no calls about the quake were received at the station. However, he said, the dispatcher did feel it. Dispatcher
Lori Benson “felt a rolling motion,” he said.
“We didn’t feel a thing,” said Captain Steve King of Kern County Fire Department Station 75 in Randsburg.
Neither that station nor Station 74 in Ridgecrest received any calls relating to the event.
Engineer Jake Cagle at KCFD Station 77 in south Ridgecrest, however, reported that the quake “felt like
somebody actually hit the building.” He described it as a real quick jolt. “I went outside to see if the building
had been hit, then asked the other firefighter if he felt that, and he said no.”
Under the U.S. Geological Survey’s website data map “Did you feel it” section, some 67 residents in the
Ridgecrest area reported feeling it also. In fact, the website tallied reports from as far away as Palmdale,
Riverside and Visalia.
Locals who were at China Lake’s Echo Range during the quake were among those left shaken. “There
was a noticeable up-and-down motion accompanied by a booming noise,” said Larry Cosner.
He said that at first he and some of his co-workers thought it might have been a jet crash. “It was definitely
one of the strongest quakes I have ever experienced,” said Cosner, who has spent most of his life in
Ridgecrest, which some term the “Earthquake Capital of the World.”
According to the Southern California Earthquake Data Center’s website, the Garlock Fault is capable of
producing quakes with magnitudes as high as 7.6. A few sizeable quakes have occurred along the fault in
historic times. The most recent sizeable event was a Magnitude 5.7 near Mojave on July 11, 1992.
The only other fault in the region thought capable of producing a higher magnitude quake is the San
Andreas, with an 8.0 probability. For more information, visit the SCEC website at www.data.scec.
org/fault_index/garlock.html
“It’s always better to be prepared,” said Brown. Water, hard-line phones, hand-cranked flashlights and radios
that generate their own power are good to have on hand, he said. “Canned goods — nonperishable — and
bleach to purify your own water, candles and matches, common-sense things.”
Brown advised in the event of a major earthquake to listen to the local radio stations (if they’re on the air), for
necessary emergency information. “If something happened, all our officers would be brought in to assist with
anyone who needed help,” he added.
Brown also noted that “it’s not a matter of if it’s going to happen but when.” Expect the worst and be prepared
for it. “I would like to think our city is prepared.”
The Garlock Fault stretches 155 miles east-northeast from Frazier Park to Death Valley and runs
approximately 12 miles south of Ridgecrest.
By DAVID JOHNSON
News Review Correspondent
News Review Correspondent
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