- LOS ANGELES (Reuters)
-- A series of earthquakes, the largest registering magnitude 5.9, shook
central California on Tuesday, the U.S. Geological Survey reported. There
were no immediate reports of injury or damage.
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- The quakes hit a sparsely populated area of the state
near the city of Parkfield shortly after 10 a.m. Pacific Time (1 p.m. EDT).
-
- The 5.9 quake was the largest to hit California since
December and produced more than a dozen aftershocks.
-
- "We're checking for downed power lines and that
sort of thing but so far there have been no such reports," said Sgt.
Pete Hodgkin, San Luis Obispo County Sheriff's spokesman.
-
- Hodgkin said a deputy was in a high school classroom
in Parkfield when the largest quake struck and had reported no injuries
there. The quakes were felt as far north as San Francisco and as far south
as Santa Barbara
-
- Parkfield, located on California's San Andreas fault,
has regularly been hit by earthquakes since at least the 17th Century and
has long been studied by scientists trying to better understand their nature.
-
- Geologists have been predicting since the 1980s that
a major earthquake would hit the area.
-
- North of Parkfield the San Andreas Fault is "creeping"
slowly, said Susan Hough, a seismologist with the U.S. Geological Survey.
But to the south, she said, the fault is "locked," making the
region prone to large quakes.
-
- In fact, scientists predicted that a magnitude 6 earthquake
would strike Parkfield around 1988 and since then have been waiting and
monitoring the San Andreas fault in that area.
-
- "This looks like the Parkfield event we've been
waiting for," Hough said.
-
- The center of the earthquake was around 50 miles northeast
of the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant. The plant has the capacity to
produce about 2,200 megawatts of electricity or enough power for about
two million people.
-
- "Vibrations were felt in the control room but there
are no reports of any damage or any other effects on the plant and it is
operating normally," John Nelson, a spokesman for the plant's operator,
utility Pacific Gas and Electric, said.
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- Paso Robles, 17 miles from the epicenter of Tuesday's
quake, was hit hard by a magnitude 6.5 earthquake in December. That temblor
killed two people and wrecked several buildings, including a clock tower
that toppled into the street.
-
- - Additional reporting by Kevin Krolicki and Nigel Hunt
in Los Angeles and Michael Kahn in San Francisco
-
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