Magnitude 6.4 earthquake rocks parts of Northern California; thousands of outages reported

A preliminary magnitude 6.4 earthquake rocked Northern California early Tuesday morning, the strongest earthquake the area has seen in years.

There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake struck at 2:34 a.m. PT in waters about  7.5 miles west of Ferndale at a depth of just over 16 miles. The city is about 19 miles south of Eureka near the California and Oregon state line.

As of early Tuesday morning, the National Weather Service’s tsunami warning system reported there was no tsunami threat associated with the quake.

Tuesday’s 6.4 magnitude earthquake could be the most significant to hit California since July 2019, when a 7.1 magnitude quake hit the Ridgecrest area in Southern California, according to the state Department of Conservation. A 6.5 magnitude quake was recorded about 100 miles offshore near Ferndale in 2016.

As of just before 4 a.m. PT Pacific Gas & Electric Co. reported tens of thousands of customers without power in the area. In Humboldt County alone, where Ferndale is located, more then 70,000 people were in the dark.

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The earthquake came just days after a small magnitude 3.6 earthquake struck the San Francisco Bay Area, waking up thousands of people at 3:39 a.m. Saturday and causing minor damage.

That earthquake was centered in El Cerrito, about a 16-mile (25-kilometer) drive to downtown San Francisco.

It also comes on the heels of a magnitude5.1 earthquake rattling the San Francisco Bay Area in late October. No one was injured in the natural disaster. The quake happened on the Calaveras Fault, one of eight major faults in the Bay Area and a branch of the San Andreas Fault line.

The U.S. Geological Survey said a preliminary 6.4 earthquake struck at 2:34 a.m. PT offshore in Northern California on December 20, 2022. The area is about 12 miles west of Ferndale, about just south of the California and Washington state lines.

Tuesday’s early morning quake was the largest the area had experienced in years, according to USGS data. The last notable quake was a 6.2 magnitude earthquake that struck offshore in the Cape Mendocino area of Northern California in December 2021.

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That earthquake was centered off the coast about 210 miles northwest of San Francisco, just off a tiny town called Petrolia that’s home to fewer than 1,000 people.

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This is a developing story.

Natalie Neysa Alund covers trending news for USA TODAY. Reach her at nalund@usatoday.com and follow her on Twitter @nataliealund.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Northern California earthquake near Ferndale, Eureka: Outages reported