LONE PINE, Calif. — A moderate earthquake followed by dozens of aftershocks rattled the eastern Sierra today but no damage or injuries were reported.
The magnitude-5.0 temblor struck at 3:01 a.m. with an epicenter about 18 miles southeast of the Owens Valley town of Lone Pine.
More than four dozen smaller aftershocks including at least five that registered at magnitude-3.5 followed over the next five hours.
The quakes hit a rural area near Sequoia National Park about 180 miles northeast of Los Angeles.
Inyo County sheriff’s dispatcher Faith Felton said she felt a slight tremor during the strongest quake.
Seismologist Susan Hough of the U.S. Geological Survey said the energetic aftershocks did not appear to be unusual.
“It looks to me to be a generic aftershock series,” she said.
The last destructive quake to hit the Lone Pine area came in 1872, when a temblor similar in size to the 1906 San Francisco quake killed about 30 people and leveled nearly all buildings.
On the Net: earthquake.usgs.gov⁄
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