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Here's What Back-To-Back 7.1 And 6.4 Magnitude Earthquakes Look Like: The Ridgecrest Quakes In Photos

UPDATED: July 7, 8:25 a.m.
Residents of Ridgecrest and other nearby towns in the Mojave Desert are picking up the pieces the morning after a 7.1 magnitude earthquake struck the area. The July 5th earthquake was the second large earthquake to hit the area in two days — and the largest in Southern California in 20 years.
On the morning of July 4th, a 6.4 earthquake, now determined to be a foreshock to Friday night's larger quake, hit the area. The shallow quake occured in the Little Lake fault zone, one of two complex fault zones in the Indian Wells Valley area. The other is the Airport Lake Fault Zone.
Seismologists originally thought the little Lake Fault was approximately 10 miles long but Dr. Lucy Jones said Friday that after the two temblors of the past couple days, the fault seems to be growing and is now between 20 and 30 miles long, meaning it can produce more powerful earthquakes than previously thought.
The good news? Jones says the rate of aftershocks is slowing down. There have been thousands of aftershocks, some of them magnitude 5.0 or higher, in the last few days.
The quakes recorded by the Caltech-USGS network https://t.co/D5sY2rXhKs The number of aftershocks goes down with time. Right after the mainshock, the system can't find the little quakes among the big ones. Now that the number of big ones is down, we record more little ones pic.twitter.com/0GJYA2lnpa
— Dr. Lucy Jones (@DrLucyJones) July 7, 2019
Here are some of the images from the aftermath:
FIRES
Firefighters in Ridgecrest work to put out a house fire and a fire at a mobile home park, early on Saturday, July 6, 2019.





DAMAGE
An employee carries items on Saturday for a customer, navigating broken bottles scattered on the floor. The store has remained opened since Friday night's quake in order to serve the community.





Early Saturday morning, workers repair a hole that opened in a road. Authorities are advising caution for anyone driving in the areas near Ridgecrest, which is about 150 miles north of Los Angeles.

Shattered liquor bottles cover the floor near the cash register of a Ridgecrest store.


Food that fell from the shelves litters the floor of an aisle at a Walmart following Friday's 7.1 magnitude earthquake.


JULY 4TH QUAKE
Before it became clear that the 6.4 magnitude quake on the 4th of July was a foreshock to an even bigger temblor, authorities had started repair work on the roads. A vehicle drives over a patched up crack on the road along Hwy 178 north of Ridgecrest on the road to Trona.

A damaged home is seen after a 6.4-magnitude earthquake hit in Ridgecrest, California, on July 4, 2019.

A local resident inspects a fissure in the earth after a 6.4 magnitude earthquake struck the area on July 4, 2019 near Ridgecrest, California.

A vehicle drives over cracks on Highway 178 north of Ridgecrest some 16 miles south of Trona on July 4, 2019.

VIDEO & IMAGES FROM AROUND THE WEB
AFTERMATH: Firefighters respond to numerous fires and gas leaks after southern California got shaken by its strongest earthquake in 2 decades #EarthquakeLA pic.twitter.com/ulIb0Cpn4b
— Bloomberg Quicktake (@Quicktake) July 6, 2019
Conditions through SR178 in the Canyon pic.twitter.com/l3rnYGhutJ
— CHP Bakersfield (@BakersfieldChp) July 6, 2019
From my mom @mom2five1 in Ridgecrest California @ABC7 pic.twitter.com/iZSxoJsSXU
— JD (@jedent) July 6, 2019
The moment as a powerful magnitude 6.9/7.1 #earthquake hit #Ridgecrest, California. We were inside a restaurant as the entire building started shaking. Many people panicked as they tried to get to safety. #earthquake #caquake @foxnews #foxnews pic.twitter.com/0ma6To3rq7
— Jeff Paul (@Jeff_Paul) July 6, 2019
7.1 Earthquake in Ridgecrest,CA felt in Las Vegas,NV #Earthquake #NBC #ABC #LasVegas pic.twitter.com/wkU49SkpDx
— Rhianna Rae (@rhiannabrooklyn) July 6, 2019
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