Earthquake rattles homes, broke windows, woke people from their sleep around Kern County

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) — It shook homes, broke windows, woke people up from their sleep, and it even shut down Interstate 5.

A 5.2 magnitude earthquake rattled Kern County just after 9 p.m. Tuesday night, striking near Mettler, just south of Bakersfield.

Surveillance video captured the moment the earthquake hit. You can see several liquor bottles falling off the lower shelves as an employee and customers bolt out of the store. This all happening at Verdugo Market on Mettler Frontage Road, about 10 miles from the epicenter of the quake.

Interstate 5

The earthquake also caused a major headache for drivers on Interstate 5 when a large boulder fell onto southbound lanes . It closed lanes for nearly two hours as Cal Trans workers used heavy equipment to clear the debris.

The road is back open this morning.

Earthquake captured in real-time at Griffith Observatory

The 5.2 earthquake was seen in real-time on a seismograph. It was captured by aerospace specialist Jared Head at the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles.

Seismographs are installed in the ground throughout the world and operate as part of a network to capture ground motion.

Seismologist Dr. Lucy Jones said Tuesday night’s earthquake is very close to where Kern had a magnitude 7.5 in 1952. However it does not appear to be on the same fault as that earthquake.

“That was the White Wolf fault which dips in a different direction and it doesn’t look like this earthquake was associated with any known fault, is our preliminary assessment. It is having a lot of aftershocks. We’ve already had two above magnitude 4 and four above magnitude 3, between magnitude 3 and 4. So that’s a pretty active sequence for this very short amount of time since the event.”

Watch the full segment to hear Alex Fisher take a closer look at the earthquake and its aftershocks.

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