Prepare for more aftershocks from Barstow quake, seismologist says

A magnitude 4.9 earthquake hit near Barstow at 1 p.m. Monday afternoon, with shaking felt as far west as Santa Monica.

The initial quake was quickly followed by two aftershocks. Seismologist Yehuda Ben-Zion, director of the Statewide California Earthquake Center , told KNX News we should expect more to come.

“Generally, statistically, they will be with decreasing magnitude, meaning the shaking from the aftershocks will be smaller,” he said. “Occasionally, the sequence that starts like this ends up actually ramping up and we get a larger earthquake, but this is not typically the case.”

Ben-Zion said the area around the epicenter, called the Eastern California Shear Zone, has been the most seismically active region of Southern California for the past 30 years. It’s the same area where the magnitude 7.1 Ridgecrest quake struck in 2019, along with the magnitude 7.3 Landers quake in 1992.

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Seismologist Lucy Jones said in an X post that today’s earthquake was more than 30 miles from the San Andreas Fault, so it won’t change the probability of a San Andreas quake.

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