5.0 Quake Rattles Central Valley

A moderate earthquake rattled a broad area of Central and Southern California on Thursday night. The magnitude 5.0 shaker hit at 9:47 p.m. and was centered in farm country 16 miles south-southwest of Bakersfield, said a seismologist at Caltech.

Authorities had no immediate reports of injury or damage but said the jolt was felt from the Central Valley to Los Angeles.

“Our 911 board lit up like a Christmas tree,” said Kern County Sheriff’s Sgt. Bob Yoon. “It was a pretty good, rolling quake.”

In Gorman, about 75 miles northwest of Los Angeles, there was also “relatively heavy” shaking, said Sheriff’s Deputy Robert Norlemann. There were no reported injuries or damage.

Caltech seismologist Kate Hutton said the quake was centered in a lightly populated area in the vicinity of the White Wolf Fault, which runs from the area southwest of Bakersfield into the Tehachapi Mountains. That fault was the cause of the 1952 Tehachapi quake, which at 7.7 magnitude was the biggest quake to hit Southern California this century.