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Large Quake Felt in Southern California
Aired April 04, 2010 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Don Lemon live at the CNN world headquarters in Atlanta.
Breaking news here on CNN. We're covering an earthquake in California -- Mexico, I should say. Baja California, Mexico. Baja California, Mexico. And it is right centered in that area. That is where the epicenter is.
Initially, we were told by the USGS that it was a 6.9 quake. They have just updated that to a 7.2 quake. There is also another quake in northern California, 4.1, felt there.
The one in southern California -- in Mexico, Baja, California, Mexico, felt as far away as Arizona, 5.1 aftershock near Imperial, California.
We were in touch with the USGS. They're giving us updated information. We're following and checking our affiliates out in California. They are sending us live pictures in and we're also working it here in the CNN Severe Weather Center.
So we turn now to CNN meteorologist Bonnie Schneider with the very latest on this information. She has been checking.
Bonnie, you have been looking at -- what do you call it? It's not a rumble map or the shake map.
BONNIE SCHNEIDER, CNN METEOROLOGIST: A shake map, and also Google Earth which really gives you real-time information in terms of aftershocks. And we've been tracking the aftershocks to show you where they are, some in Mexico, some in southern California.
Now here's what's interesting to note. Just in the past few moments the epicenter of the original quake has now turned orange because it's now past the hour since it occurred. This one still says 6.9, it hasn't updated on here that it's now 7.2.
And incidentally seven -- once you go past 7.0 on the magnitude scale, that upgrades it in intensity quite a bit to a major earthquake.
Now it's also important to note that you do see a lot of aftershocks here in varying magnitude, varying in depths, as you see this one, one of the larger aftershocks, 5.1. This is near Imperial in southern California and this one occurred within 30 minutes of the original quake.
But on the shake maps that we're showing here, this one now shows just from initial reports a computer generated image of where it's felt. The area here in red indicates the epicenter. Now that it's been upgraded to 7.2, it kind of matches up with what you see here.
A concentrated area around the epicenter in Mexico did experience violent shaking according to this map. Now this is a preliminary finding. We'll be getting more as we get more information coming in. But you can see areas towards Mexicali and once you start traveling further north into California, or on this scale reporting light shaking, light intensity.
You're probably wondering, so close, why is it violent just in one area and then lighter once you start heading in other directions? Well, one of the major factors with quakes in terms of how you feel them are the depth in which they occur, how far beneath the earth the shock absorption will occur.
A deeper quake can indicate a better situation in terms of less violent shaking and this quake right now, this could change as we saw the magnitude just change, the depth being initially reported at 20.1 miles.
Now the seismologist that we had on said this is relatively shallow, but it is somewhat deep compared to other quakes. For example, in Haiti the depth of that quake was eight miles deep.
LEMON: Yes.
SCHNEIDER: A much more shallow quake and we saw much more severe damage in its course.
LEMON: And it causes -- you said it causes much more damage when it's shallow because the earth doesn't absorb it.
Hey, Bonnie, stand by. So I want to get some people at home some pictures. Some pictures. Let's go. We have an iReporter who sent us some video in as this was happening, and I want to take a look at her iReport.
Play it for me, Scotty.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Look at the light beam. It's still going.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's so weird.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. Look at that.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Is that an earthquake?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's calming down now.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Was it that big?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Get the baby. It's crazy.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: It certainly is. She said "that's crazy." That's from one of our iReporters out in southern California who picked up the camera when she saw this. And if you have any iReports make sure you send them in.
That's just a small part of what's coming in here to CNN. We're trying to get it on the air, vet it, make sure that it is accurate, and we'll get it on the air for you and get you some pictures in southern California.
We want to tell you again. This earthquake has been updated to 7.2. It started out as a 6.9. There were initial reports the first findings from emergency workers were very few injuries, if any at all, loss of electricity. They were still out checking.
They were asking people to stay off their cell phones, use texting rather than calling for voice. We were on the phone with a couple of people and they got knocked off because a lot of people are using the telephones.
Again, this one centered in Baja California, Mexico. Baja California, Mexico. And again, this was a big one. What's going on? We'll talk to other experts to see if there's some unusual activity under the earth that is causing all of this, and if we can expect more.
You're watching CNN, the worldwide resources of CNN. We're on top of it. We're checking with our affiliates and our sources out west. We're getting you the very latest information and pictures on the other side of this break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: We will continue to follow our breaking news coverage here on CNN in Baja California, Mexico. A large earthquake measuring 7.2 in magnitude hit Baja and it happened just a short time ago.
We have been on the air live getting live reports from people who are on the ground and also getting reports on social media. They're sending in pictures as well.
Send us your iReports, we'll get them on the air.
We're told this far -- people as far as downtown Los Angeles felt a tremor there. Again, we're also getting a report -- and this is according to the USGS -- of another earthquake. This is according to them, in northern California, and an aftershock 5.1 near Imperial, California.
We're going to continue to follow this story but it's also appropriate to update you on what else is going on in the world. We'll be back with the earthquake.
So it's time now for your top stories. A quick check of the headlines here.
Deadly violence in Baghdad today. Suicide car bombers set off three blasts within five minutes of each other, killing at least 30 people. Hundreds of others were wounded there. There are new concerns that insurgents are trying to capitalize on political uncertainty in the wake of recent elections.
A Chinese coal ship has slammed into Australia's famous Great Barrier Reef. Planes are dropping chemicals to break up what Australian media are reporting is a three-kilometer-long oil spill.
Officials say the vessel slammed into the reef at full speed. They're worried the ship could break apart. The vessel was off course from the shipping lane in restricted waters.
Protesters numbering in the tens of thousands are ignoring a government deadline to disperse from the commercial heart of Bangkok. The demonstrators efficiently shut down the district's luxury shops and five-star hotels for the last two days. Mainly poor protesters known as the Red Shirts are demanding new elections.
In politics now, the Tea Party Express just keeps rolling along. Here's a bus rolling into Little Rock, Arkansas with its anti- Washington establishment message. The bus is on a 23-state tour. The trip ends in Washington, D.C. on -- you might have guessed it -- tax day which is April 15th.
A tough White House economist is predicting more slow but steady growth in the labor market. But economic adviser Lawrence Summers had a word of caution today on CNN's "STATE OF THE UNION."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LAWRENCE SUMMERS, DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL ECONOMIC COUNCIL: We've got a long way to go. We've inherited a terrible situation, a most pressing economic problems, since the Great Depression in our country. It is the president's preoccupation to put people back to work.
That's what the Recovery Act was all about. That's what the legislation he signed into law to give incentives to businesses to hire people who have been out of work, was all about.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Summers' remarks come two days after an announcement that 162,000 jobs were added in March. The biggest job gains in three years.
NASA is saying that so far all systems are go for tomorrow morning's launch of the Shuttle Discovery. Takeoff is now on track for 6:21 Eastern Time. Discovery will carry seven astronauts plus loads of supplies and equipment for the International Space Station.
And it's worth noting that the 13-day mission will mark the first time four women have been in space at one time.
We're following breaking news here on CNN. A 7.2 magnitude quake hitting Baja California, Mexico. There is a report of another quake and also aftershocks that are going on.
Breaking news, live on the other side of this break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: Breaking news on CNN. A big earthquake hitting the west coast, specifically California. Here's the very latest that we're getting from the seismologist at the USGS.
They have raised the magnitude, the preliminary magnitude of this, from 6.9 to 7.2. One of the seismologists there said the magnitude of the quake had raised and again they wanted to caution that this was still an estimate. It could go up or down a bit.
The quake, we were told, was centered south of California's border with Mexico. It was widely felt. Buildings were swaying as far away as San Diego. We are told this video that you're looking at coming from one of our iReporters. Los Angeles felt it, Arizona felt it as well.
There have been no confirmed -- there has been no confirmed damage but some power outages to report to you in southern Arizona, in Tijuana, Mexico. The damage is likely occurred closer to the epicenter such as the Mexican city of Mexicali or in U.S. border cities.
And again they're just getting this information, the latest from the wires. This has gone from a 6.9 magnitude quake to a 7.2 quake.
Meteorologist Bonnie Schneider and again -- and I'll give you the specific name of the seismologist. Her name is Lucy Jones, Bonnie, she says the new magnitude of the quake is still an estimate.
SCHNEIDER: Right.
LEMON: But it's 6.9 now to 7.2 and that could change up or down.
SCHNEIDER: It's very typical that we see changes. And I have a new change to also report along with the magnitude. We were reporting initially the depth at 21 miles because that's what the USGS reported. They've now also done a change with that and now it looks like the quake is shallower than originally thought.
The quake is now listed at 6.2 miles so the depth has changed and the magnitude has changed. So when we look at who was affected when you're talking about such a severe quake, it really depends on where it occurs.
If it occurs near a major city like Port-au-Prince in Haiti, you're going to have severe destruction and devastation because over two million people live very close to the epicenter.
In this case -- let's go to the maps. I can show you the population of this area in northern Mexico. This was a less populated area. You can see the epicenter here, right in the center, and according to the scale, the estimated population exposure to extreme shaking is less than 2,000.
Now that's not to minimize it, but it's important to note that where an epicenter of a quake occurs can make a big difference.
There's some other lines here, and I'm going to bring this map up full so you can see it. Stand by. What we're trying to show here is that the actual intensity of the shaking of the quake really was less severe as soon as you started heading further north towards Mexicali and then towards areas into southern California.
Even Tijuana reporting lighter shaking, so long a concentrated area of violent shaking by a less populated area but not to minimize the effect, of course, the less than 2,000 people that maybe did experience the violent shaking, I'm sure that was a very troublesome 20, 30 seconds or so that it lasted.
We did get reports of shaking with this quake, as you know, as far to the east as Arizona. I've been getting a lot of comments on Facebook from people that talk about lights swaying about, the movement that we showed of the pool in the water, almost a rolling effect, which is really what could be happening beneath the earth. It's amazing how fat it can go.
LEMON: North as what, Bonnie?
SCHNEIDER: I've had reports into Arizona, into Phoenix and Scottsdale, people saying that --
LEMON: That's east, right?
SCHNEIDER: East. Right.
LEMON: And as far north --
SCHNEIDER: As far north as into northern California.
LEMON: Yes. I've heard someone said Seattle that they felt it, again, and then do we have as far obviously south as Mexico.
We're also looking at some pictures. We're trying to get some more pictures on the air, Bonnie, for our viewers, I want to say, because we want to vet a lot of -- some of them. We're not sure if they're exactly valid or accurate, so we want to get them on.
Can you -- Scotty, can you just take KABC, please? We're monitoring our affiliate KABC, there on the air live there, too, as well as our other affiliates in California as well as Mexico.
A lot of you are sending me comments saying, "Hey, don't forget about Mexico. Please tell us." Just why we want to tell you about Mexicali and what happened. You heard Bonnie mentioned what happened further down south into Mexico, and then again there could be the possibility of other aftershocks there. Hey, just quickly before we get to break, can I listen in to KABC just for a moment and carry our viewers to break? There we go.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MIKE COMPTON, CALLER FROM SAN BERNARDINO (via phone): -- 35 to 40 seconds, and then the building we're in keeps going after that a little bit, but it was kind of scary.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I can imagine so, being on 12th story. Do you know if that building that you were on is on rollers or -- or not?
COMPTON: It's earthquake-proof building -- excuse me, and -- but its refrigerator did move two inches forward.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How about --
COMPTON: And --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm sorry.
COMPTON: It's got little bells on the wall up there and they were ringing, and that kind of got me, you know. It's kind of scary.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mike, are the elevators --
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: You can imagine you heard the viewer calling in to our affiliate KABC that we go to our affiliates all the time when there are breaking news and if they have some information we don't have. Of course, we let you listen in to their coverage.
That is how they're covering it out in California where this all happened in southern California. Again, KABC.
I'm Don Lemon at the CNN world headquarters in Atlanta. We are following breaking news here on CNN, an earthquake that has just been upgraded from 6.9 to 7.2.
People are scrambling all over southern California and northern California to try to figure out and survey the damage here, if there was anyone hurt in this and just what's happening around their property.
We're getting some pictures in, we're trying to get them on the air to you, and we will cover this just as long as it is still going on, as long as there are aftershocks to be felt and measured there. Again these pictures that you're looking at from our iReporter.
We're going to be back on the other side of the break, but I'm going to let these pictures carry you to break and then we're back in a moment.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's so weird.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, look at that.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Is that an earthquake?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's calming down now.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Was it that big?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
(CROSSTALK)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: 7.2 in magnitude. That's what the USGS says that this quake that hit southern California and Mexico was. A big one. A big one.
At first, they thought it was 6.9, they have upgraded it now to 7.2. They're telling people to be safe out there because they don't know what has fallen, what kind of damage they have.
Some people are without electricity. There are reports of people being trapped in elevators, also reports of aftershocks, also a report the USGS is telling us another quake in northern California. And they are still trying to figure out exactly what's going on.
We have talked to seismologists who have said they want to figure out what's going on with the tectonic plates, why they're shifting so much. But again, 7.2 magnitude quake that happened within the last couple of hours on the California-Mexico border.
We're going to continue to follow this developing news, this breaking news, out of California, but we want to get on to other news that will affect you, this is a very big story.
So listen. In just eight months after the swearing in of the nation's first Hispanic U.S. Supreme Court justice, President Barack Obama may soon have another opportunity to make a lasting mark on the high court, but he could face a tough political fight ahead for sure.
So let's find out from our political editor, Mr. Mark Preston.
Mark, so it appeared -- you know, we've been saying the president maybe he's gotten his mojo back. Asking about that. At first glance, it would appear if there is a retiring Supreme Court justice that it might be good news for the Obama administration because they get to pick someone.
But it certainly gives him something else to look at and it takes the focus away from jobs and the economy a bit.
MARK PRESTON, CNN POLITICAL EDITOR: Yes, and someone said that that might actually be a bad thing for the Obama administration for the sense that a lot of criticism was directed at president Obama, Don, because he had spent so much time on the health care legislation, in trying to get health care reform through. A lot of people thought he took his eye off the ball when it came to the economy and jobs.
Of course, what we're talking about here is the fact that Justice Stevens is thinking of stepping down. He has told that to the "New York Times," "The Washington Post" and our own Jeffrey Toobin. He said he'll make a decision in the next month or so whether he'll step down.
He'll be 90 years old very shortly. So I think Justice Stevens' stepping down does give the Obama administration an opportunity for the president to put his own imprint on to the court.
Don, ideologically, it probably, though, won't change that much. Right now the court, of course, is made up of nine justices, five of them are considered conservative, four are considered liberal, and Justice Stevens is one of those who's considered liberal.
LEMON: It's interesting, though, Mark, I mean he is considered liberal but he says himself that he's conservative.
PRESTON: Sure, and I think that in his own terminology he probably believes that he's conservative. He was appointed by President Ford back in 1975, a Republican president, but when you look at how he votes on the court, and if you talk to liberal interest groups, you know, they actually like the way that he has voted in the past on some, you know, very big cases. So we'll see what happens.
LEMON: Yes, it is a very big deal, though, that the Obama administration, at least President Obama, gets to appoint two judges. As we've said, you know, Sonia Sotomayor -- if this indeed does happen, and our Jeff Toobin says he believes it's eminent within the next month. He's about to turn 90, the justice.
So it's a big deal. Two judges. Do you remember in recent history who got to appoint that many?
PRESTON: Sure.
LEMON: More than one?
PRESTON: Yes, you know, Don, I went back and looked at this because you can forget what happened yesterday certainly in the game of politics. Actually, three out of the last four presidents have actually put two justices on the court each. And let me just tick through them very quickly for you.
George W. Bush, our most recent president, Judge Alito and the Chief Justice Roberts. He appointed both them to the bench. President Reagan put Justice Scalia and Justice Kennedy on the bench. President Clinton put Justice Ginsburg and Justice Breyer on the bench. And President Bush, of course, 41, who's the father of our most recent president, he only put one justice on the bench, and that was Justice Thomas. LEMON: OK. So it seems to be on par but I'm not sure this early on -- you know, just a little over a year into Barack Obama's presidency, President Obama's presidency.
Mark, listen, can you take me through this? I wanted to talk a little bit earlier about this with Paul Steinhauser about the Republican meeting that's coming up in New Orleans next week.
This is going to be a test for Michael Steele, I would imagine, his reception there, to see maybe what lies ahead for him the next couple of months and if he's going to be the head of the RNC the next time around.
PRESTON: Yes, you know, that's a really good question. What we'll see later on this week, Don, the Southern Republican Leadership Conference will convene down in New Orleans.
What this is is political activists across 14 southern states who will all come together and what are they going to do? They're going to talk about politics. They're going to talk about 2012, about who they think should be the standard bearer, who should carry the flag against President Obama in 2012.
But as you just brought up, there'll probably be a lot of talk about Michael Steele. He's had a very, very rocky road over the past couple of weeks, some would say, since his whole tenure has been rocky.
He spends a lot of money, Don, and that has really upset a lot of Republicans. They think that he should be focused more on just raising money, cutting back on his use of private jets and other expensive extravagances.
LEMON: Spent -- you said he spent a lot of money and hasn't really given as much money to the -- to Republicans as did Ken Mehlman. Ken Mehlman gave tens of millions of dollars and so far Michael Steele has not done that.
PRESTON: Well, and you know what happens with the RNC. If you talk to strategists who were involved with congressional candidates and senatorial candidates basically what the RNC does and what the DNC does -- the Democratic National Committee -- is that it provides air coverage during the midterm elections.
They give a lot of money in order to run issue ads and to help out these congressional committees try to get candidates elected. I think it's fair to say that there's a little bit of frustration among Capitol Hill -- Republicans are on Capitol Hill, Don, about how Michael Steele is actually really directing the committee at this time.
LEMON: Yes, and it's a tough -- it really a tough position for the party because they may not be happy with Michael Steele, at least that's the hint, that's -- not even a hint, people are saying it in the RNC. They may not be happy with him but changing horses in midstream and especially so close to the midterms, it's probably not a good idea. PRESTON: You know not a good idea, Don. Absolutely, and let's not discount the fact that under his stewardship Republicans did pick up Virginia and New Jersey and Massachusetts.
LEMON: Yes.
PRESTON: Three very big wins.
LEMON: He said some three -- he had three wins under his belt very recently.
Thank you, Mark Preston. We'll check back. We appreciate it.
Mark, hey, real quickly, you're in Washington. You're not hearing anything from the administration or anyone about this earthquake that's happening out west, no response yet? It's Easter Sunday we know.
PRESTON: It's Easter Sunday and again, I think that they're probably just watching our coverage finding out what's going on.
LEMON: Mark Preston, thank you very much.
PRESTON: Thanks, Don.
LEMON: And that is the perfect segue. Back to our top story now. An earthquake in southern California, 7.2 in magnitude, according to the USGS, felt as far east -- this is from Baja California, Mexico. As far east as Arizona, southern parts of Mexico, as far north, we're hearing, at least in northern California, there was a 4.1 quake, again, according to the USGS.
I want to you take a look and listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Look at the light beam. Look. It's still going.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's so weird.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. Look at that.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Is that an earthquake?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's calming down now.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Was it that big?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
(CROSSTALK) UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Get the baby. It's crazy.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: That video comes from our iReporter, her name is Vanessa Rodriguez. She is in Hemet, California, and the San Jacinto Valley. The chandelier in her house started swinging violently when the earthquake hit and you can also see the pool running over its edge there. Luckily everyone is OK.
We've gotten similar video in. We're going to bring in our Bonnie Schneider.
Bonnie, real quickly. Let me take care of some business before I get to you. We're just getting information from Disneyland. There were reports of people who are trapped in a hotel there.
Six Flags, the amusement park, you heard the San Diego Aquarium, they evacuated people after it started to happen. The water from the aquariums was splashing over on the floor. They wanted to check for damage.
So Six Flags is saying they had guests taken off the rides right after the earthquake. All rides were closed for a short amount of time, the exact time unknown. All the rides were then inspected by the park's maintenance team and so on and so on.
There is a news conference going on right now in - at Cal Tech. This is from our affiliate KABC. Let's listen in to Cal Tech, the news conference.
LUCY JONES, CAL TECH SEISMOLOGIST: -- it's the largest fault within that system but especially south of the San Andreas, which is what this is, it gets very complicated with multiple faults. And we're going to -- we want to get some field confirmation before we go with the -- with a name.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: What faults are there?
JONES: The possible faults, we have the (INAUDIBLE) fault, we have Laguna Salada fault. They feed into a variety of ones up here in California, including the Elsinore fault, the Superstition Hill fault, the Superstition Mountain fault, (INAUDIBLE) fault. This is all to the west of the San Andreas. We don't really consider that a player in this group.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: What type of fault are we talking about?
JONES: It does look like it's a strike slip, northwest or southeast. By what we have, we probably -- no, north-south to northwest, and by strike slip, we mean that it's primarily a vertical fault with the ground moving horizontally during the event.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: And this is an area that had been having a lot of seismic activity? JONES: There has been a swarm going on for awhile. It's actually been really quite active in the general area for the last year or two, lots and lots of magnitude 3's and 4's and in particular in the last week there was a swarm right where this -- an earthquake ended up starting.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: What does that tell you?
JONES: It tells you us that we're having a lot of earthquakes and when you have a lot of earthquakes you tend to have a lot of earthquakes. That's about as accurate as we can get on it.
But it is a statement. When you have a lot of earthquakes the likelihood of others goes up. And we need to remember that every earthquake that we have has a probability of triggering another earthquake. It's about a 5 percent chance that the triggered earthquake will be larger than the first one.
When your first one's a 7.2 that means we have a 5 percent chance of a 7.3 or greater within the next few days. Actually, at this point we're already almost three hours from the earthquake, we've already lost some of that risk. We're probably down to 3 percent or 4 chance.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: The aftershock sequence, what do you anticipate?
JONES: We would anticipate on average the largest aftershock is going to be 1.2 units smaller than the main shock. That means if we were perfectly average sequence our largest aftershock would be 6.0, and this has been a pretty productive sequence. We've already seen lots of force. I would think that a 6.0 in the next few days is reasonably likely.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: This one was so powerful, 7.2, very strong, caused a lot of seismic activity, I mean, all along California.
JONES: Right. Well, it also causes a lot of mess. I mean we got all -- the ground's moving for a lot of different reasons and we do have some trouble mixing it up. We originally thought there was a 4.0 up in the geysers. It turns out that's only a 2.3. We were getting an intersection of the ground motions from down here.
But there are a few triggered earthquakes in the geysers area, which is north of San Francisco. It's a geothermal area where we often see triggered events. We saw triggered events in the geysers from the Landers earthquake.
This earthquake of 7.2 is the largest earthquake in the California -- Baja California area since the Landers earthquake of 1992. That was a magnitude 7.3. That event was where we were able to really clearly for the first time show that big earthquakes trigger events over a quite wide range.
The day after the Landers earthquake we had a 5.7 in Nevada. We had a 4.1 here in Pasadena. We had a -- several 4's up in the Owens Valley. Now we've already had an earthquake in the Malibu -- just south of Malibu, west of Santa Monica, and it's not showing up on this map, but it's magnitude -- is it still 4.1?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
JONES: OK, so magnitude 4.1 was -- occurred, did occur in the Santa Monica bay, that would be what we call a triggered earthquake. We just discovered people get upset when we call it aftershocks when they're that far away.
So we have a rule of thumb that if we're within one fault length, so on a 50-mile long fault anything within 50 miles of the fault we would call it an aftershock. If it's father away we call it a triggered earthquake.
And mostly those triggered are only showing up within the first few days. So we have had a 4.1 near Santa Monica that we would classify as a triggered earthquake to this event.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: But how is Landers connected to this one? Can you articulate that?
JONES: No. Landers is not particularly connected to this. I'm just using the comparison. So Landers was a very similar sort of earthquake. It was the same size, the fault was 60 miles long. This one's a little bit smaller maybe, we really are on preliminary magnitudes so we'll just say same ballpark of size.
That was also a strike slip earthquake. It started in the south and ruptured to the north and we saw all these triggered earthquakes towards the north and the northwest, including as I said a 5.7 in Nevada, 5.7 in Mojave 11 days later, and 4.2 one day later in Pasadena.
We have seen a 4.1 now off of Santa Monica, you know, another 4.0 somewhere in southern California in the next day. We'll just go oh, yes, there's another triggered earthquake.
Can't really give a probability. We don't have that good a handle on how -- the exact numbers but don't be surprised.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: This comparison -- for clarity there's no --
JONES: There's no -- right, there's no tectonic relationship between them. They're actually pretty different. In fact, if I can just step away for a moment and bring up a slightly larger fault map.
LEMON: We are following breaking news again. That was a press conference with the seismologist at Cal Tech talking about the size of this earthquake, which is really interesting because here's what she's saying.
You can expect another quake within the next couple of days, one as big, she says, as a 6.0 maybe within the next couple of days and that is pretty busy -- pretty big. What she also said that I found interesting, when you have a lot of earthquakes there's a possibility for a lot of earthquakes because one just keeps triggering the other. It's like a domino effect.
And they said a 5 percent chance that the triggered event that happened which would, if it's close, within 50 miles of the fault, right, then it's an aftershock, as she said, 50 miles further out than the fault then it's a triggered event.
She said there's a 5 percent chance that one will be larger than the other. So the people out there in southern California and in northern California, again, one she said a triggered event, 4.1, felt up near Sacramento north.
She said they're not out of the woods. So there could be another event and who knows what happened from this 7.2 event that they had initially about three hours ago.
Following breaking news here on CNN. Our Bonnie Schneider -- we can show her -- our meteorologist, is going to have some new information for you. She'll have that on the other side of the break, as well as we're monitoring that press conference happening at Cal Tech. And we're monitoring our affiliates. If anything happens you will get it.
We're following breaking news here on CNN. Much, much more, moments away.
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LEMON: Hello, everyone. I'm Don Lemon live here at the CNN world headquarters in Atlanta. We are live on the air now because of a sizeable earthquake that has hit southern California and also Mexico, right there on the border with several triggered events and aftershocks throughout the area.
Again, 7.2. That is a big quake. Initially the reports were 6.9 and it was upgraded to a 7.2. There are triggered events in southern -- northern California, Sacramento and above. 4.1.
We were just listening to a press conference and we can show that a press conference going on now. Let's show that, Scotty, from KABC at Cal Tech. And she is answering questions as a seismologist with the USGS.
And the information we got from her -- she said it happened about three hours ago and she said there are chances that the triggered events or the aftershocks, 5 percent, that one could be larger than the next, and within the next couple of days, the next couple of days here's what she said, "You can expect and it's likely that a 6.0 magnitude earthquake is likely to hit within the next few days." So they're asking people to be safe and to take note, and keep mind of that.
We're monitoring everything for you out west in California, as well as other news that's happening in the country. On this Easter Sunday, this really caught everyone off guard, people out enjoying the day with their kids at the zoo and the aquarium and all of the sudden they had to bolt from the park or they were taken from the rides.
We're told some people were on rides at Disneyland, other people were caught in elevators in hotels out there. We're checking on all of it here on CNN.
I'm Don Lemon. Breaking news back in a moment.
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LEMON: Breaking news here on CNN. A really big -- a really big earthquake has hit California, right on the California-Mexico border, and also northern California, several triggered events there.
People were out and about enjoying the day, Easter Sunday, beautiful weather out there. Children had to be grabbed off of rides at Six Flags. That's what we're being told. They checked the rides, made everybody get off, did some park maintenance.
Same thing at Disney, Sea World, the aquarium in San Diego. We heard someone, they came on earlier, saying water started splashing over the tops of the aquarium. So they pulled everyone out of the park there, checked for cracks in the aquarium. And then, I'm not sure if they're back open but they're assessing the damage.
There's also a press conference going on live now.
This video that you're looking at, this is from one of our iReporters. I mean, just let you listen to a little bit of it and then we're going to get to Bonnie Schneider in a bit.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Look at the light beam. It's still going.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's so weird.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. Look at that.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Is that an earthquake?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's calming down now.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Was it that big?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: If you look at this video, it's from our iReporter, her name is Vanessa Rodriguez. She's in San Jacinto Valley. The chandelier in her house started swinging, you saw that, violently when the earthquake hit. And then pool, the water started running over the edges and luckily there, no one was injured. And they are assessing the damage now in California and in Mexico.
Bonnie Schneider, we heard that the seismologist out there in California at Cal Tech talking about the possibility of some triggered events?
SCHNEIDER: Yes.
LEMON: After this, and they can be big, 5 percent chance that one will be bigger than the next. And, you know, I did find this interesting, and she said the more earthquakes we have, the more the possibility for more earthquakes because one just triggers another.
SCHNEIDER: Well, imagine if you had a pen or a pencil and you break one part of it, and one corner, that's applying more pressure to the other so you tend to see that with earthquakes that you can. The more you have, the more you're likely to see. And that's why we see so many aftershocks.
And I want to show you, I've been calculating and tabulating the aftershocks to keep you up to date. So far we have a total of 19 aftershocks, 16 of them have occurred in California, three of them have occurred in Mexico. And you can see the aftershocks.
Originally we were pointing to the red dots because those are the quake's aftershocks that have occurred in the past hour but the largest one here, this was the original one, and this has already been now two hours at least since the original quake of 7.2 magnitude, and the depth also has been recalculated from an original perspective of 20.1 miles down to 6.2 miles. That's making it much more shallow.
Now one of the reasons we're not getting catastrophic reports, at least not yet anyway, it has to do with where it occurred. And we're looking at the estimated population exposure. Now some of these cities in Mexico are fairly large, for example the largest city closest to the epicenter is Guadalupe Victoria and that has a population of between 14,000 and 18,000 people.
When you're looking at the exact epicenter, it's a less populated area, a smaller area, and we're getting reports of a population of less than 3,000. Now this is very -- this is all estimates so it's important to note that it did occur in less populated area.
It was a fairly shallow quake that we now know of and we can see numerous aftershocks and I want to take you on a tour here on Google Earth. And you can see, we can go all the way -- there's San Diego -- and we have aftershocks, you know, not next to the city but close enough is why we're feeling the shake map of did you feel it. And I can bring that up, too, as well.
LEMON: Hey, Bonnie? Hey, Bonnie, listen.
SCHNEIDER: Yes. LEMON: We were reporting earlier here on CNN, we're talking about people hearing -- feeling it as far as Las Vegas. Also I'm getting people saying hey, listen, we're hearing about the San Bernardino Valley, please report on the Imperial Valley in Baja. There's damage out there.
And we have seen -- I've seen some pictures online of really bad damage if they're accurate, Mexicali, and people in the Imperial Valley, they really want to know what's going on.
What can you tell us about that area and what they might have experienced?
SCHNEIDER: I can tell you that the Imperial Valley and Mexicali specifically are -- have estimated to have experienced strong perceived shaking and light damming. Now light damage, that's all relatively speaking, of course. It depends on the structure and that's what really makes the big difference when you look at earthquake damage.
When we're talking about Haiti, we saw massive devastation because a lot of the structures were poorly constructed, therefore they could not withstand an earthquake. We saw severe damage in Chile but not as bad as Haiti because some of the structures were more secure and stable.
So it really depends on the population, what sort of buildings are constructed in that area. But looking at the shake maps certainly the Imperial Valley and Mexicali are in the zone of where you see strong to light shaking or possible damage occurring. So I'm not surprised to hear that there was damage. This was an intense, intense earthquake, 7.2 magnitude.
LEMON: Yes, that's big.
SCHNEIDER: That is tremendous. And I also want to mention, I found interesting the seismologist from Cal Tech was talking about what happens beneath the earth and what sort of earthquake this was. She described it as a strike slip earthquake.
And just to imagine what's happening with the plates, they're kind of rubbing up against each other, and then a strike slip means in the process of rubbing and moving laterally, one slips down.
LEMON: Yes.
SCHNEIDER: And it's a slight movement and remember, the tectonic plates are moving at such a slow pace, almost if you looked at your fingernails and how fast they grow, you can't see them growing but they're growing. It's the same thing that's happening beneath the earth.
So it's a slight movement that can cause a massive impact, certainly well beneath the earth. This one six miles beneath the earth.
LEMON: OK. All right. Thank you very much. And I thought it was interesting she said a magnitude in -- an earthquake in magnitude of 6.0 likely within the next few days.
Bonnie, thank you very much.
Our Latin Affairs editor, Rafael Romo, monitoring the situation in northern California. He has some new information under there. And also want to tell you we have some pictures that are just coming in as well of the situation as this earthquake happened and moments after.
We're following breaking news here on CNN. We're back just a few moments.
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LEMON: An earthquake 7.2 in magnitude hits southern California and Mexico. Let's look at some pictures now from Adrian Farraguere. She is in the city of Industry, California, which is about 20 miles east of Los Angeles.
This is -- these are pictures of a car dealership. Let's look at them now if we can get them up. Adrian took these pictures, right, after the earthquake happened. She said that crack in the roof according to her was because of the -- according to him, I should say, pardon me -- was because of the earthquake.
Again, that's at a car dealership. And again we have seen the pictures, some from our iReporters, chandeliers shaking, what have you, but it causes damage. We've seen some electrical lines that are down.
Our affiliate KTLA showing video inside of a store -- it looks like a grocery store -- on now of things that are just strewn all about.
Let's get now to CNN Latin Affairs editor Rafael Romo who has been monitoring the situation in northern Mexico.
You have been calling source there, Rafael. What are you hearing?
RAFAEL ROMO, CNN LATIN AFFAIRS EDITOR: Well, the maybe problem right now, Don, is that telecommunications are down throughout northern Mexico. We've been trying to call people in places like Mexicali and the area of the epicenter and telecommunications are down and people -- some of the people who can actually get in to Twitter are telling us that they have not even radio stations or TV stations operating at this point.
And, Don, let me tell you that the magnitude of this earthquake is being felt or was felt in a very wide area as far east as Phoenix, Arizona, Los Angeles in the east, and throughout the state of Baja California in northern Mexico, so we're talking about a very large area, but I want to focus really on what happened in specifically --
LEMON: Yes, I want to -- specifically I want you to focus on Mexico because I'm getting -- you know, as you said you were talking about Twitter and social media, apparently there is damage in the Imperial Valley and that communications are down in some areas, right? Apparently there's damage there, and people want to know what's going on in the Imperial Valley and in Mexicali. So again talk to us about what you're hearing from there because we have been seeing, you know, pictures of -- that we're trying to get vetted of products strewn about in supermarkets and what have you.
And people who are on the street, the streets buckling in those areas, so can you specifically focus on the areas for us?
ROMO: Let me show you, Don, some of the pictures that we just received that you're going to see, for example, a hospital that has been evacuated in the city of Mexicali. People had to just basically run out of there.
We also saw a picture of a store, here you see the picture of -- this is the Chamber of Commerce in the city of Mexicali. You see the broken windows there. You see the pavement that was badly damaged and that gives you an idea of how strong the earthquake was felt in that area.
We also have pictures of a hospital where people -- there you see it right there, people had to evacuate and some of the patients had to just basically run out as fast as they could.
Again, this is a hospital in the city of Mexicali, just cross the border from Acalexico. We had pictures of, for example, a store where you -- looking at the shelves, there were no products left on the shelves.
(CROSSTALK)
LEMON: Yes, I saw those pictures, Rafael. Listen, we're going to have to end it there, our Latin Affairs editor, Rafael Romo, monitoring the situation in Mexico.
Thank you so much for watching. We'll be back at 10:00 with breaking news coverage. Don't go away.
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