Tsunami warning for Northern California triggered by magnitude 7.0 earthquake

and good afternoon everyone we're going on the air right now with breaking news out of Northern California that 7. 0 magnitude earthquake that was felt and happened off the coast near Eureka a tsunami warning has just been canceled we want to bring in meteorologist David bigger to talk to us more about that so 7. 0 earthquake is that not strong enough to trigger a tsunami oh it's it's well strong enough to trigger a tsunami it's just the thing is not every single earthquake off the coastline generates a tsunami some do some do not so in an abundance of caution they obviously issued one because the problem is I'm going to get into a little bit of technical details here we have a lot of buoys that sit off the coastline that are used for tsunami detection they sit over here on the other side so we really didn't have a lot of time to be sitting around waiting to see did something get generated did something not get generated so I think out of an abundance of caution that's why the tsunami warning center issued the tsunami warning for the California coastline and then it takes some time for the waves to travel anywhere so after they finally got some observations along the coastline that's when they realized we're likely not looking at anything significant so they went ahead and canceled it but this is the location of it it sits off the coastline here so Eureka is right here Crescent City's in this area San Francisco's down here this was likely felt all the way down into the Bay Area although some reports in the Bay area of feeling shaking is actually potentially an Aftershock that was felt more in the geyser's area that was a 5.

8 it happened only a couple minutes after this when we're still trying to figure out if that was actually linked a 7. 0 earthquake is relatively rare for California in fact it's relatively rare for the world in general we only average about 18 of these a year across the entire planet so to get a 7. 0 off the coastline of California pretty significant this actually happens right at about the boundary of a couple of plates uh it's the San Andreas meeting in with another U fault line that's just to the South I think of the wuka plate that's sitting just uh off the Oregon Coastline but look at the kind of shaking intensity that we had along the California coast so anything that you see on here that's yellow or orange is starting to get up into pretty strong or even violent shaking so likely seeing some damage along the California coastline between Eureka all the way down past Garberville maybe farther south but probably not too much farther south but the key thing to note on here look at reading look at Red Bluff Chico areas in the Central Valley way away from the earthquake which was right off the coastline here likely still felt some shaking so this is the kind of thing that was felt clearly down into the Bay Area likely into the center Valley as well and that's something I would totally expect with an earthquake of that magnitude back to you all right thank you so much David we're standing by for a special report from NBC News we'll go to that just as soon as we get it but right now Conan Nolan joins us you're familiar with the area they've seen a lot of earthquake activity in the past right and to David's point this is the Confluence of several tectonic plates uh remember the Cascade Range Mount Cham uh Mount Lassen in Northern California Mount Hood Mount reneer that's all part of a subduction zone where one plate is going under the other plate and that's uh sort of the venting of those that entire that to range of mountains remember we talk about Northern California this is northern northern California is about 280 miles north of San Francisco uh and yes uh as David pointed out they certainly did feel it in the Bay Area I had a nephew who sent me a video from Davis uh they they felt it there it may have been the the uh the Lake County uh earthquake though that 5.

8 um uh Hult County and Del Norte County are the locals called Del nort County uh that is part of the Lost Coast uh the um it is there's been a lot of seismicity there over over the past as seismologists are not surprised that this earthquake took place here at this point we've seen an increase in seismicity of late uh of course we haven't had a 7. 0 locally since uh LMA pra locally I mean in California l a you know several decades three decades ago uh and of course there was the Northridge Earthquake and we're anticipating that there will be a greater earthquake down the road of course DrLucy Jones of the US Geological Survey and the seismologist over at Caltech and USC talking about the big one eventually going to take place uh the San Andreas this monstrous earthquake fault that separates the Pacific uh and the North American plates rubbing against each other and we're actually not sure why there hasn't been uh that major earthquake they keep referring to the southern San Andreas that area between montere County and Palm Springs as the woman in her 10th month of pregnancy there's supposed to be an earthquake it hasn't happened they're not sure yet why you will see a series of aftershocks taking place uh we've already seen I'm I'm sure there's going to be a major Aftershock sequence as a result of of a movement of this U size that's to be expected remember seismologists say if there weren't aftershocks after an earthquake like this that would be a worry because it would be acting in a much different fashion than it normally is expected to so once again the tsunami threat is over um there was a word out by the sheriff's County the sheriff's department the office of emergency services that around noon time 8 minutes ago this tsunami was going to hit and there's a potential that it could be no bigger than three feet high uh that that problem uh that alert that that fear has passed but I understand there's still traffic lots of people trying to get way heading for High Ground yeah absolutely you know and we want to continue talking about this tsunami and so we have Dave Snider with the tsunami warning center Dave thank you very much for joining us sure thing happy to be here Dave so let's talk about this we just got the alert that the tsunami warning has been cancelled what does that mean now for you guys that's correct so um out of an abundance of caution uh we issued a tsunami warning um about an hour or so ago and in that we we were watching the potential for a tsunami wave to be generated from the earthquake that we're now referring to as a 7. 0 uh that occurred along a strike slip fault and as we got more information about the motion of the earth under the water uh and put that into our modeling systems there it was determined that we were not going to see a widespread destructive tsunami or inundation wave from this we confirmed that with other observations along the coast and continue to model this with more higher resolution information and again just not uh seeing the potential now for that inundating wave so great news here but the tsunami warning is cancelled uh the most important thing at this point is to continue to monitor local emergency information from uh your emergency officials and local communities there around the Bay Area and all the way down into Los Angeles It's Not Unusual to see strong and unusual occurrence following these types of situations and ones that can come and go over the next several hours or days uh so make sure you're paying attention to beach information there and again from your local emergency officials all right and and Dave since we have you on the phone anytime we have a major earthquake we talk about tsunamis is there going to be a warning is there going to be a threat what should people do when we actually do have a tsunami warning and in this case at one point we thought it could happen uh right it you know it sounds like all indications are people are doing exactly what they should be doing moving away from the coast and moving to High Ground away from the beach and away from uh the lower uh Bays and River miles there where water can move up and in uh in this case uh a warning means move away from the coast and follow those emergency procedures from your local officials a tsunami advisory which is a lower level alert or a type of a warning would mean to just get out of the water uh get off the boat uh get out of the harbors and uh you don't have to evacuate the city for an advisory uh but it's a good idea to get away from the water in that case um the warning though is the the one where we we typically like to think about it is the Hollywood wave coming in and uh you know usually that's not what it's going to look like it'll look like a big surge or flood from the ocean uh in this case it it didn't happen U and we're really grateful for that because this was a lower-end earthquake along a faulting system that didn't push or move a lot of that water toward the coast uh but it sounds like everybody did the right thing responded quickly and with time and care and uh we hope to learn more from this event so we can continue to keep people safe I know in the past we've seen some damage to marinas to boats that are out there we're looking at live pictures right now but so far so good and that is a good thing so we thank you for joining us Dave Snyder with the tsunami warning Center thank you for giving us the latest that warning now cancelled and we are happy that the time has passed and nothing has happened but we're talking about where this hit uh how deep it was how far off the coast and what kind of damage we might expect to see uh from an earthquake like this and David when when we were first talking about it and it came in it was a 6.

6 and you were still saying wow you know that that is really strong yeah so a six first of all for every step of magnitude that you're talking about we're talking about releasing a lot of energy and a seven is significantly stronger than a six even a 6. 6 is significantly stronger than a six so when I saw that and I was already pretty surprised I mean again as I mentioned earlier it's pretty rare to get a 7. 0 period across the planet and then to get one that's pretty close to California is also pretty rare but the thing is is uh when we're talking about this so the reason why I think the magnitude changed a bunch of times is because first you get your automated systems those are the first things that detected the earthquake some of those trigger earthquake early warning alerts which did happen along the California coastline for some areas and then as it gets reviewed by seismologists they take a look at the information we now have more seismic stations reporting information that's where we start seeing the magnitudes change a bunch and then they finally ended up on a 7.

0 magn the location I noticed kept changing yeah the location initially was a little close to the coast kind of went off the coast a bit more and kind of settled in between there but it does seem to be that the location of it all the positions that they placed it sits right along the same fault line it's it's right off the coastline there it it's almost an East West little break in The Fault there so we I'm sorry but how many miles off the coast and how deep was it I mean we normally get that right off the bat well right well that's the thing so I have a depth for it but the depth is listed as only it's it's like less than a kilometer which I don't think is correct so I'm waiting to try to find an actual correct depth for it the distance off the coastline I'd have to probably measure it is probably like 30 or 40 miles or something like that um but yeah so and that again was one of the contributing factors I think why they said out of an abundance of caution they threw a tsunami warning was because there's there's very little information that they can gather between earthquake happening and potential waves arriving at the coastline keep in mind the waves they're not they're not always like the movies it's not something that instantly Happ exactly although we have seen that around the world we have occasionally seen that but the thing is it's like these these waves move slow but quick they move at about the speed of a jet plane for instance that's why when this happened it's not like you were going to see waves in the Bay area in about 10 minutes we were expecting if any tsunami waves were to happen which again the tsunami warning has been cancelled but it would be arriving in San Francisco in about 6 minutes and what would we see at that point though it it depends so in some cases you see sometimes just some very strong currents through Harbors we had that previously with the Japan earthquake that tsunami made it all the way across the Pacific to California and we ended up with in Cresent City for example some areas around montere you would see that the current really picked up in the harbors and it would rip the docks kind of like off their Moorings but it wasn't a giant wave that was inundating things we have had in cases with very strong earthquakes especially in deduction zones like off the California Oregon Coastline some waves that are higher and can go farther Inland you think about the Japan earthquake initially there was a series of waves that kind of came in but it's it's kind of that cumulative effect of several waves it's almost like storm surgeon away it's cumulative effect that kind of pushes the water farther Inland and obviously water has a lot of energy behind it so it starts hitting things and breaking things up and that's what ends up happening but in this case obviously not looking at that and that's why Dave Snider with the tsunami warning center was saying stay away from the coast stay away from the beach stay away from those River Bays very important and especially what kind of what did also uh raise my eyebrow is that he's saying you know even here in our area so yeah so that this is a warning for all of us to just continuously be aware of these War it's a great reminder because we don't get the kind of practice at this sort of stuff so if you live along the coastline in an area that could be potentially inundated in a tsunami and keep in mind As you move away from the coastline our elevation increases pretty quickly but if you live along the coastline if you feel strong shaking you should just always think that's potential possibility and to you know act accordingly and then later on if we find out oh it wasn't off the coastline or anything like that that's your first kind of warning so right but you need to be facing a north-facing shoreline I mean if your Shoreline is south facing you're not going to be hit by a by a tsunami it depends on where the earthquake happens right no in this case in this case absolutely I didn't think that California was going to have an issue with this um yeah so that's exactly right and it gets to the point that when a that seismology is like you know is like real estate it's location location location and that's why we ask about the uh distance off the coast and its depth the more Shadow the earthquake the greater the uh propensity for the shock the the S waves and the p waves uh to be more damaging the deeper it's less damaging the the the earthquake so long the C range generally are deeper mhm than they are down here uh which is a good thing for them uh and uh and if there's a 7. 0 that takes place you know 300 miles off the coast that's a big earthquake but it's not that big for us because you're just not feeling it right um and the other question for you though David is that would you not see a re the the water would recede first yes po so yes that that's the thing is if it's a if it's going to be a large enough wave you'll see receding you'll still see some receding even with smaller waves um but the thing is that that's kind of the the currents and the ties I was just talking about where sometimes you see that through the harbors so yeah all right we want to go right now to Robert de Groot from the USGS he is on the phone he talked earlier with us about how the early warning system works in this case what are you learning now about this earthquake and thank you for joining us right now good afternoon yes and we hope everyone is safe and everyone took that protective Act ction if they felt shaking if they're they they were in the affected area and we know that shake alert powered alerts were delivered to cell phones as far north as Lincoln City Oregon that's north north of Corvalis in Central Oregon and as far south as seleni uh with alerts being multiple alerts potentially being received by people in the Bay Area so um we know that over half a million people received alerts in in the two states that were affected by this particular earthquake and thankfully now we have seen that tsunami warning has been cancelled but at one point um we were worried about that we you know everybody got to the alert we had a potential for this happening and um they were told you know to stay away it it's it was a good thing uh that they had that early early warning just in case absolutely yes and if you're on the coast and if you feel shaking or if you get an alert um that should be your your your your sort of indicator that something is going on um the earthquake is your your warning for a potential tsunami so once the shaking is over we recommend that people move to Higher Ground are you hearing anything about damage right now any other kind of damage happening there this was a 7. 0 not not specifically yet but I'm sure that information will be available soon but the shake alert system and also from um our other data sources that provide shaking information we know that um area has experienced upwards of of intensity s uh shaking and that is that is actually possible to to knock down chimneys to move large pieces of furniture for um items to fall off of shells and out of cupboards um so it there were some regions especially along the coast and the regions around Eureka and Arcada that Redwood Coast Area where that experienced the highest levels of shaking even though this earthquake was on the order of say 40 miles um off the the coast of uh Northern California um the heavy heavy shaking reached the reached the coastline okay Robert you know we're talking about the damage and all um back in 2022 The Humble the humbled area also had an earthquake 6.

4 17 people died in that one I mean so we are talking about big numbers here are you at all surprised is that California got a 7. 0 this time around yes um well of course any earthquake this size is a surprise because we can't predict earthquakes but um we are well prepared to to and this is why we have the shakel earthquake early warning system as one Tool uh to have um to to assist in the Readiness for earthquakes um this is a very active region uh we've seen upwards of magnitude six earthquakes several happen over the last several years but an earthquake this size um doesn't happen very frequently but frequently enough that we know that we need to be ready for them and of course folks along the coast especially in this region um are no are no stranger to Big earthquakes all right Robert de gr thank you so much for joining us from the USS with the very latest um on this 7. 0 magnitude earthquake that hit in Northern California that tsunami warning now cancelled we're also following other breaking news we want to go live to otai Mesa right now that is where the governor was set to an announcement that's right and we still don't know what's going to happen with that but we do have our NBC fors Christian cus he's there live at the border with what is expected Christian so where would that's right guys good afternoon well we are standing by for the Governor's arrival here at the US Mexico border here in San Diego County he was supposed to be making uh some more uh releasing some more information here on the project here at the uh for a new Port of Entry but I do want to get to some information that was just put out by his uh by the governor's office here on X if you want to look here on your screen uh this was just posted moments ago they say the governor has been briefed on the earthquake off the coast of Northern California and the resulting tsunami warning now the governor is now meeting with State emergency officials and working to ensure Californians are safe and of course this comes as that big earthquake uh rattled the northern part of the state now we are expecting the governor to make some sort of remark uh about the earthquake when he arrives here in San Diego County we were told uh that original press conference for those details for the New Port of Entry was supposed to take place at 12:00 but we were told just moments ago the governor uh is uh there is some sort of delay on his arrival we're told he is expected here about in the next 45 minutes or so so once he arrives of course we will bring you that information live but for now that's the latest from San Diego County Christian Casas NBC4 news I'll send it back to you in the studio all right Christian thank you so much now back to the earthquake hona Nolan is here with us uh David bigger talking about this and we were asking how far off the coast and we just heard like 40 it was about 40 miles or so yeah and how deep and it's about eight miles deep so that is it so it's interesting I'm I'm applying both Southern California and Northern California stuff here so for for our region we would consider 8 miles to be a relatively deep earthquake but for subduction zones and the areas around the Cascade that's probably not that deep because some of those earthquakes can be more on the order of 15 to 20 mi deep uh but the shallower an earthquake is the more energy that can be essentially pushed out uh from it so or it can be felt U pretty far away so that's what we're seeing along the coastline in fact if this is our weather one computer what I'm going to do is I'm just going to flip a little graphic here for everybody uh so uh yeah if if control room gets a chance to take our weather one computer uh we'll we show it to you but uh so essentially we have a shake map here it is from the USGS and so this shows the shaking intensity and the key thing to note on this is if you think about like a lot of our earthquakes that happen in Southern California a lot of our threes and our fours we're talking about colors on this scale that are often in that kind of white to very light blue range very rarely do we start to see some of those greens popping up like what you're seeing around reading and Red Bluff those spots are in the Central Valley way away from the coastline way away from where this earthquake happened if you look around Garberville you look around Eureka and you look just essentially along the coastal areas there you see a lot of that orange and yellow coloring that is some pretty significant shaking a lot of energy was released with this and a lot of energy was felt at the surface so that's one of those areas where I'm sure we're going to be seeing some damage pictures come in I'm curious to see what essentially happened in that area as well uh so anyways I just wanted to make that little point of just about the shaking intensity and that's exactly what we were hearing from the experts they were saying the chimneys could fall so you could see some more major damage other than what like we've seen in our area recently with even 5.