More earthquakes struck eastern California

Eastern California awoke Saturday morning only to find that another spate of earthquakes have struck the Eastern Sierra, as a magnitude 4.5 quake rattled a famous ghost town some 200 miles (320 km) north of Los Angeles.

The latest magnitude 4.5 aftershock hit at 4:50 a.m. local time (1150 GMT), and a trio of temblors at or above 3.0 magnitude hit later in the morning, according to automated seismographs operated by Caltech, the USGS and other universities.

The epicenters were near Keeler, an old ghost town founded in the 1870s as a steamboat port on the north shore of Owens Lake.

A 5.0 quake sent the area rattling early Thursday morning, and a trio of quakes with magnitudes of 4.7, 4.9 and 5.2 struck with in a few minutes Friday evening.

The same area was hit by a monster quake in 1872, which killed 26 people in Lone Pine. It is a part of the "Eastern California rift zone," where extensive and relatively- recent earth movement has triggered volcanoes, earthquakes and mountain- building within recent geological epochs.

It is reported that about 10,000 earthquakes of varying magnitudes strike California every year. Hundreds of smaller quakes have jiggled the same spot like a drum roll this week.

Source:Xinhua