A tsunami warning has been lifted for the Bay Area after a 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck the Northern California coast

A 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Humboldt County Thursday morning, shaking cities as far south as Oakland and triggering a tsunami warning for much of the state's north coast, prompting residents in low-lying areas to flee to higher ground before the warning was issued. Canceled.

The epicenter of the quake, which occurred at 10:44 a.m., was estimated at a depth of half a mile under the Pacific Ocean, about 40 miles off the coast of the historic Humboldt County town of Ferndale, near the Eel River Valley. The strongest shaking occurred in Ferndale and the small communities of Rio del, Fortuna, and Petrolia.

Hassan Reda cleans up following a 7.0 magnitude earthquake inside E&J Liquors, Thursday, Dec. 5, 2024, in Rio Dell, Calif. (Savannah Robinson via AP)

The National Tsunami Warning Center, headquartered in Palmer, Alaska, issued a tsunami warning at 10:49 a.m., then canceled it about an hour later, at 11:54 a.m.

The earthquake was followed by a large group of aftershocks in the region, whose magnitude ranged between 2.7 and 4.0. More are expected.

There were no immediate reports of injuries or serious damage. But an estimated 10,000 Humboldt County residents lost power after the quake, according to the Eureka-based Times-Standard. PG&E's online power outage map showed two outages for more than 800 customers in the area Thursday afternoon, with several smaller outages as well.

Caltrans spokesman Manny Machado said crews were checking state highways in the area and asked motorists to avoid travel.

“The floor kept moving. Our power went out,” Eureka resident Rhonda Mitchell said minutes after the quake struck. “I'm in such shock right now.

“The earthquakes we see here are not as rolling as the ones that happen in the Bay Area,” said Mitchell, who has lived in Milpitas for 42 years. “They're shaking violently back and forth, and I felt like it wouldn't stop. It's the longest earthquake I've ever experienced.”

In Ferndale, there were a few broken windows in Victorian-style storefronts along Main Street, said Carolyn Titus, a longtime local, who watched residents quietly head to a local cemetery where they waited out the tsunami threat.

“Everyone sat under desks” in a classroom at Cal Poly Humboldt, based in Arcata, said forestry student Lucas Aubin, of Sunnyvale.

Drinks and other food items fell to the ground inside Hoby's Market and Deli after a 7.0 magnitude earthquake Thursday, Dec. 5, 2024, in Scotia, Calif. (Dylan McNeill/The Times-Standard via AP)

The quake is the largest in California since a magnitude 7.1 quake hit the town of Ridgecrest in Kern County on July 5, 2019.

Governor Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency in Del Norte, Humboldt and Mendocino counties to support the emergency response to the earthquake. He added that this would allow more resources to be directed to where they are needed.

Strong shaking was felt in Eureka and Arcata, and moderate shaking was reported farther east in the cities of Redding, Red Bluff, Chico and Ukiah. But the movement was also detected 300 miles south in the Santa Cruz Mountains.

“While sitting at the dining room table, I noticed the chandelier was swinging,” said Cathy McKinney, who lives off Summit Road in Los Gatos.

In one of the high-rise buildings in Auckland, Jacob Shklovsky (38 years old) was watching with astonished curiosity as the door moved back and forth without anyone standing near him.

Gemma Schusterman's curiosity led her to the pier off Seacliff Drive in Richmond, overlooking the bay, around noon Thursday, minutes before official tsunami warnings were lifted.

“I'm a paddle boarder, so I'm always interested in what's going on in the water,” Schusterman said. “Important people take these things seriously, but I'm glad no one was hurt.”

It was a familiar experience for Humboldt County residents, who lived through a 6.4 magnitude earthquake on Dec. 20, 2022, followed by a 5.4 magnitude earthquake on New Year's Day. The area experienced days without power, some structural damage to buildings and more than 200 aftershocks.

The tsunami was expected to reach San Francisco Bay shortly after noon, with the potential for serious and widespread coastal flooding. People were advised to evacuate to higher ground or a tall building immediately.

The hour-long threat alarmed many residents of the coastal Gulf region.

Sirens sounded throughout Berkeley late Thursday morning, while in Oakland, computerized city signs indicated red emergency warnings asking people to seek higher ground. At Berkeley Marina, motorists turned out as authorities closed roads, and a motorcycle officer patrolled the promenade along the West Frontage Road waterfront.

Red shows areas under a tsunami warning after a 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Humboldt County, California. (Courtesy of NOAA)

In San Francisco, workers left their offices near the water and headed to the city's famous hills.

“It was a little nerve-wracking,” said Lexi Tate, manager of the North Beach Orange Theory gym, located two blocks from the water. She canceled a class, hopped in her car with a bus and headed to Hyde Street. Watching the San Franciscans heading up the hills “was certainly a strange sight.”

The Humboldt earthquake had one immediate local impact: It shut down BART's Transbay tube and caused significant system-wide delays, according to BART spokesman Chris Filippi. Trains were running again by early Thursday afternoon.

Thursday's quake occurred along a turbulent zone where three tectonic plates meet, called the Mendocino Triple Junction, where the Pacific, Gorda and North American tectonic plates meet. It is considered part of the Cascadia subduction zone that extends north along the coast. This area is known for frequent earthquake activity due to the complex plate interactions there.

It was preceded on Wednesday morning by two earthquakes measuring 4.4 and 4.2, also west of Eureka.

Four earthquakes with a magnitude greater than 7.0 have originated in this fracture zone over the past 50 years. The last major tremor in the region was caused by a magnitude of 7.2 in 2005.

The earthquake is not related to the three major faults in the Gulf region. The San Andreas Fault extends approximately 750 miles across California between Cape Mendocino and San Diego, including the San Francisco Peninsula. The Hayward Fault runs for approximately 74 miles along the western base of the densely populated East Bay Hills. The Calaveras Fault extends approximately 76 miles from Hollister to Danville.

For Northern California residents, the most likely source of a serious earthquake is the Hayward-Rodgers Creek fault, with a 31 percent probability in the next 30 years. This fault passes through the heart of the East Bay cities. The Hayward section of the fault near Mount Misery, east of San Jose, extends northward into San Pablo Bay. The Rodgers Creek portion begins there and extends north into Lake County.

The last major earthquake in the Bay Area was the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, a 6.9 magnitude earthquake that occurred on October 17, 1989, in the Santa Cruz Mountains. It killed 62 people and caused $6 billion in damage. The largest earthquake since Loma Prieta shook Napa in August 2014 with a magnitude of 6.0. No one was killed in the quake, but hundreds of buildings were damaged and dozens were red-tagged. Before that, a 5.4 magnitude earthquake struck near Alum Rock in San Jose in 2007.

In 2014, a panel of experts estimated that there was a 72% chance that the San Francisco Bay Area within the next 30 years would be hit by an earthquake at least as strong as the 6.7 Richter scale Northridge earthquake that struck Southern California in 1994. There is a much greater chance, 99 percent, of a smaller but still powerful 6.0 magnitude earthquake occurring during that period.

Along the Humboldt County coast, officials in Eureka and other coastal cities are briefed regularly throughout the year on earthquake preparedness and tsunami protocol. .

“Things weren't as chaotic as others in the past,” said Titus, the former editor of a community newspaper, The Ferndale Enterprise.

“If you're going to live anywhere in California that has earthquakes, this is a good place,” she added. “Don't worry about not having water or food. We have a community of people who help each other.”

Bay Area News Group staff writers Julia Brodis-Sulik, Linda Zavoral, Jacob Rodgers, Katie Lauer, Ethan Baron, Ethan Varian and Rick Hurd contributed to this report.

Originally Posted: December 5, 2024 at 11:15 AM PT

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