On June 24, three significant earthquakes occurred around the world. The first of the earthquakes hit at 8:00 am Pacific time in northern California. This magnitude 5.6 earthquake was located along the Maacama Fault about 30 miles east of the San Andreas Fault. It shook the towns of Willits and Ukiah, causing minor property damage but no major injuries or serious damage to infrastructure. After this earthquake, Dr. Herman reached out to his contacts at KGET to see if they wanted him to come in and talk to them about the event.
Before they could reply, a second earthquake happened a little after 3:00 pm Pacific time, this time in Venezuela. This earthquake was much larger, and actually consisted of two events about 30 seconds apart: a magnitude 7.2 and then immediately a magnitude 7.5. When large earthquakes happen this close in time, it might be better to think of them as a single event. The size of this earthquake, its proximity to the populous regions around Caracas, and the general lack of earthquake-resistant infrastructure made it particularly destructive.
Finally, 30 minutes later a magnitude 6.9 earthquake hit offshore of northern Japan. Japan's excellent earthquake preparedness meant that this earthquake did no damage.
Dr. Herman went on KGET the next day to talk about these earthquakes with Elaina Rusk and Tami Mlcoch for the News at Noon. Watch the interview below!