The quake sparked this house fire in Ridgecrest , California. Ben Hood via ReutersA powerful earthquake has struck Southern California, touching off house fires and damaging buildings in a desert town northeast of Los Angeles, but authorities had no early reports of injuries. The quake is the largest in Southern California since the 1994 magnitude 6.6 Northridge earthquake, USGS geophysicist Paul Caruso said. That quake, which was centred in a heavily populated area of Los Angeles, caused billions of dollars of damage. According to European quake agency EMSC, the quake was felt in an area inhabited by some 20 million people.

Source: Otago Daily Times July 04, 2019 21:22 UTC