Northern California

USGS Mistakenly Reports 5.1-Magnitude Earthquake Near Redding, Calif.

The US Geological Survey erroneously reported that an earthquake with a magnitude of 5.1 struck about 25 miles north of Redding in Northern California just after midnight on Friday.

That's because the USGS issued the alert based off a 6.7-M earthquake that struck in Alaska.

That would make sense, according to Trinity County Officer J. Morrel, who confirmed his agency got a state alert about the quake, but that no one called to report feeling it. "I believe we would have," he said.

The alert said the quake was centered near Redding in Trinity County's Lewiston, according to the U.S. Geological Survey's map.

No one felt anything in nearby Redding, either. "We didn't even feel it," said a Trinity County dispatcher. Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";}

By coincidence, the mistaken USGS report came out on the same day as the Hollywood fictional account of "San Andreas," a disaster earthquake film  premieres.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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