5.6 Magnitude Earthquake Strikes Northern California

A 5.6 magnitude earthquake struck Northern California’s coast Monday afternoon, rattling the ground around the Oregon border but yielding no immediate reports of major injuries or damage, officials said.

It struck at 1:07 p.m. about 18 miles inland in an unincorporated part of Humboldt County, the U.S. Geological Survey said. The epicenter was a rural area near the small community of Weitchpec on the Hoopa Valley Indian Reservation, about 240 miles north of San Francisco and about 60 miles south of the Oregon border.

Tremors were felt as far away as 100 miles.

Debbie Bailey, who owns an office supply shop in Hoopa, about five miles from the epicenter, said only a few items fell off shelves there. She described the jolt, which lasted four or five seconds, “like a pick-up-and-move, like a soft wave.”

Seismologists say the far-northern coast of California is the most seismically active area in the state, but the potential for damage and injuries there is smaller because it’s less populated.

The most damaging earthquake in recent years occurred near Eureka on Jan. 9, 2010, when a magnitude-6.5 temblor caused more than $40 million in damage and one serious injury — an elderly woman who fell and broke her hip.