5.2 M Quake Hits Northern Calafornia

Magnitude5.4 Date-Time

• Wednesday, April 30, 2008 at 03:03:06 UTC
• Tuesday, April 29, 2008 at 08:03:06 PM at epicenter
• Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones

RENO, Nev. - Scientists are scrutinizing seismic readings and studying damage to residents' homes trying to figure out what's happening beneath the earth's surface to cause a troubling swarm of hundreds of earthquakes in northern Nevada.

"We're looking at just about everything," said Diane dePolo, a network seismologist at the University of Nevada, Reno's Seismological Laboratory. "We haven't been able to associate it with any known fault."

During the past week alone, more than 500 mostly minor quakes have been recorded in the area. The two most recent widely felt quakes measured 3.1 and occurred about 11 p.m. Monday.

Scientists with the first statewide temblor forecast on Monday estimated there's a 99.7 percent chance that a magnitude-6.7 quake or larger will strike the state in the next 30 years. The odds of such an event are higher in Southern California than in the north.

The magnitude 5.2 quake occurred at 8:03 p.m. (0303 GMT on Wednesday) 35 miles (56 km) east of Eureka and was felt across the region from the Pacific Ocean to near the Oregon border, the U.S. Geological Survey reported on its website.

quake hits northern California

The U.S. Geological Survey says a magnitude 5.2 earthquake hit near Willow Creek, California.