Strong earthquake strikes off California, prompts tsunami warning

Eureka, California: A magnitude seven earthquake hit off the northern California coast on Thursday, prompting a tsunami warning that was later cancelled for a large stretch of the California and Oregon coasts, officials said.

Some 4.7 million residents of California and Oregon had been under the tsunami warning before it was cancelled, the National Weather Service said.

The earthquake, which hit at a shallow depth of 10 kilometres, was centred about 63 kilometres west of the town of Ferndale, a sparsely populated portion of the northern California coast, the US Geological Survey (USGS) said. The quake struck at 10.44am (local time).

“It was a big quake, it made you evacuate the building as fast as you could,” said Troy Land, a member of the Ferndale’s Volunteer Fire Department, who also owns a hardware store and said lumber and cans of paint went tumbling across the shop’s floor.

It was felt as far south as San Francisco, where residents felt a rolling motion for several seconds. It was followed by smaller aftershocks.

The San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District, known as BART, has stopped traffic in all directions through the underwater tunnel between San Francisco and Oakland.

San Francisco Zoo’s visitors have been evacuated, the zoo said in a post on X. The animals have been secured, and staff have been moved to higher ground.

Broken bottles are scattered on the floor at a bottleshop in Rio Dell, California.Credit: AP

Throughout northern California phones buzzed with a tsunami warning from the National Weather Service that said: “A series of powerful waves and strong currents may impact coasts near you. You are in danger. Get away from coastal waters. Move to high ground or inland now. Keep away from the coast until local officials say it is safe to return.”

The City of Berkeley police department had issued an evacuation order for parts of the city on the San Francisco Bay “due to a Tsunami coming to West Berkeley,” according to an alert sent to residents.

A tsunami warning has been issued (shown in red) for hundreds of kilometres of coastline.

More than 1.3 million people lived close enough to the quake that they could have felt it, the USGS estimated.

AP, Reuters

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