4.9 aftershock rattles Ridgecrest in aftermath of two major quakes

1/41

Dan Tolbert, 62, spends time with his dogs as he and his wife, Ronnie, 60, prepare to bed down for the night on a pair of mattresses in front of their earthquake-damaged home in Trona on July 10. Their night was interrupted when a scorpion crawled on their mattresses and they ended up spending the night in their truck. “If we keep feeling tremors tomorrow we’ll be out here again,” Ronnie said.

(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

2/41

Karen Byrd, 39, collects photo frames knocked off the wall at her home in Trona, Calif.

(Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

3/41

Ronnie Tolbert, left, delivers food to Robert VanHorn, 81, almost a week after a 7.1 earthquake near Trona.

(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

4/41

Benny Eldridge, 76, looks at a quake-damaged room in his Trona home, which he helped build with his father-in-law in 1961. The house has been red-tagged.

(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

5/41

Benny Eldridge, 76, and his wife, Anna Sue, 75, sit in front of their damaged home in Trona.

(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

6/41

Joyce Harrison Moore, 72, looks out from her damaged home almost a week after a pair of earthquakes battered Trona. “This town will either die or get back on its feet,” Moore said.

(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

7/41

Ronnie Tolbert stands beside her damaged fireplace.

(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

8/41

Valerie Helton, 60, facing the camera, receives a hug of support from Ronnie Tolbert. Helton and her daughter Jessica Sizemore Helton, left, have refused to leave their home since last week’s quakes. “This is all I have,” said Sizemore Helton.

(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

9/41

Ralph “Zeb” Haleman, 67, carries cases of water home Sunday in Trona, Calif., where residents were still without water and electricity was spotty after last week’s quakes.

(Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

10/41

Kay Byrd, 64, gives herself an insulin shot. Byrd and her family are camping outside in Trona, Calif., wary of returning home after major earthquakes.

(Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

11/41

Brooke Thompson, 8, plays on the sleeping bag that her family slept in after a pair of major earthquakes drove them out of their home in Trona, Calif.

(Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

12/41

The Byrd family has breakfast next to where they spent the night under a salt cedar tree, afraid to return to their Trona, Calif., home of 21 years after major earthquakes.

(Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

13/41

Ronnie Tolbert, left, and her husband, Danny, sleep on mattresses in the front yard of their Trona home, which was damaged in a 7.1 magnitude earthquake.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

14/41

The Horta family sleeps in the back of their pickup truck in a fire station parking lot in Trona as the sun rises hours after being forced from their home by a magnitude 7.1 earthquake.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

15/41

Kathy Vander Housen, 76 hugs her friend Claire Barker, 76, after Barker told her that she had found her two cats. Vander Housen’s mobile home in Trona had been yellow-tagged by county inspectors, but she did not want to leave without the cats, which had been hiding since the earthquake

(Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

16/41

Buckled asphalt courses through a parking lot near Trona Rd. in Argus.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

17/41

Sammy Chute cuddles Gerard as her family in Trona prepares to evacuate to Ridgecrest, abandoning their home that was knocked off its foundation during a 7.1 earthquake.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

18/41

Charles Ware, 68, in his Trona front yard the morning after a 7.1 magnitude earthquake severely damaged his home. Ware said he invested all he had into this house two years ago, doesn’t have earthquake insurance and is afraid he may not be able to rebuild. He was on the phone with his brother in San Diego when the quake hit. “I got to ride it out with my brother,” he said.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

19/41

A customer rummages for a six-pack of beer at a damaged Shell food mart in Trona the day after a 7.1 earthquake.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

20/41

Hundreds of residents of Ridgecrest, Calif., and surrounding communities attend a town hall meeting at Kerr McGee Community Center about the response to recent major earthquakes.

(Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

21/41

Christian Fellowship of Trona congregants pray after holding a quick meeting on how to help other community members.

(Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

22/41

Kern County firemen tackle a fire on Saturday morning at Town and Country Mobile Home Park in Ridgcrest.

(Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

23/41

Jamie L. Acevedo sits outside her damaged Trona home, waiting to evacuate to Ridgecrest the morning after a 7.1 magnitude earthquake knocked her home off its foundation.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

24/41

Gas station owner Roger Sandoval faces the possibility of having to shut his Trona business after a 7.1 earthquake apparently damaged the supply tanks near the pumps.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

25/41

Chavela Padilla, left, an emergency response team volunteer, walks with Ronnie Tolbert amid quake-toppled items in Tobert’s Trona home. The damage occurred in a 7.1 temblor hours earlier.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

26/41

Chavela Padilla, a Trona emergency response team volunteer, enters her car after checking on a neighbor as her two young boys, Joey, 8, right, and Jimmy, 5, sleep in the back seat at close to 3 a.m. The boys were too scared to be home after experiencing a 7.1 earthquake hours earlier.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

27/41

Chavela Padilla, right, an emergency response team member walks with Ronnie Tolbert amid quake-toppled items in Tolbert’s Trona home.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

28/41

Brothers Joey, 8, right, and Jimmy Raya, 5, sleep in the back seat of their mother’s car in the parking lot of San Bernardino County Fire Station 57 in Trona after their home was damaged in a 7.1 magnitude earthquake hours earlier.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

29/41

Chavela Padilla, a Trona emergcency response team volunteer, assists her neighbor Alicia Marines, 72, who was injured while trying to escape her home during a 7.1 magnitude earthquake. Marines was evacuated to the local fire station. James Raya, Padilla’s husband and also a volunteer, looks on.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

30/41

Chavela Padilla, a Trona emergency response team volunteer, stands in the bloody footprints left by homeowner Alicia Marines, 72, who was injured during a 7.1 magnitude earthquake. Padilla volunteered to check on Marines’ residence and collect some fresh clothes.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

31/41

Ronnie Tolbert sorts through toppled belongings in her Trona home, damaged in a 7.1 magnitude earthquake hours earlier.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

32/41

The aftermath of Friday’s earthquake at a Ridgecrest liquor store.

(Robyn Beck / AFP/Getty Images)

33/41

Work on Route 178 between Trona and Ridgecrest.

(Etienne Laurent / EPA-EFE/REX )

34/41

Workers fill large holes left in Highway 178 between Trona and Ridgecrest by Friday night’s 7.1 earthquake.

(Etienne Laurent / EPA-EFE/REX )

35/41

Highway workers repair roadway near Ridgecrest on Saturday morning.

(Robyn Beck / AFP/Getty Images)

36/41

Police and emergency services respond to a fire at a building on Highway 178.

(Etienne Laurent / EPA-EFE/REX )

37/41

Firefighters respond to a fire at a building on Highway 178 after Friday night’s earthquake near Ridgecrest.

(Etienne Laurent / EPA-EFE/REX )

38/41

In Ridgecrest, Davia Speed and Peyton Speed, holding 1-month-old Lillian, get into their car after Friday night’s 7.1 earthquake.

(Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

39/41

Dawn Inscore leaves her apartment on Ridgecrest Boulevard with her child after the Friday night earthquake. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

40/41

Carmen Rivera, 65, walks her dog Ash past a dislodged home in Torusdale Estates mobile home park in Ridgecrest. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

41/41

Zoe Pineda, 7, helps clean up the library in Ridgecrest after the Fourth of July quake. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

By Quakebot, Rong-Gong Lin II

July 12, 2019 6:25 AM PT

A magnitude 4.9 aftershock tumbled east of Ridgecrest, Calif., on Friday morning, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

The temblor occurred in an area that was struck by a pair of strong earthquakes just a week ago and has been rattled by thousands of aftershocks.

In the past 10 days, there have been 649 earthquakes of magnitude 3.0 or greater centered nearby.

The aftershock was powerful enough to cause strong shaking — or level 6 on the Modified Mercalli Intensity Scale — at the unpopulated epicenter. Moderate shaking, or level 5, was felt in Ridgecrest.

The quake was strong enough to wake some people in downtown Los Angeles and was felt as far away as Bakersfield, Death Valley and Orange County.

The Los Angeles Fire Department entered Earthquake Emergency Mode, it announced shortly after the quake. Fire department vehicles and helicopters will patrol the 470-square-mile jurisdiction to identify any damage or emergency needs.

Friday’s quake occurred at 6:11 a.m. Pacific time at a depth of 5.6 miles, the USGS said.

Since the magnitude 6.4 quake on July 4, there have been 70 subsequent quakes of magnitude 4 or greater, including the magnitude 7.1 quake of July 5.

An average of 25 earthquakes with magnitudes between 4.0 and 5.0 occur per year in California and Nevada, according to a recent three-year data sample.

Did you feel this earthquake? Consider reporting what you felt to the USGS.

Find out what to do before, and during, an earthquake near you by reading our five-step guide to coping with natural disasters.

This story was automatically generated by Quakebot, a computer application that monitors the latest earthquakes detected by the USGS. A Times editor reviewed the post before it was published. If you’re interested in learning more about the system, visit our list of frequently asked questions.

FULL COVERAGE: Earthquakes rock Southern California »

MORE: Your instinct may be to run outside during an earthquake. Here’s why you shouldn’t »