Earthquake live updates: Tsunami warning canceled for California and Oregon after 7.0-magnitude quake

Gov. Gavin Newsom said he signed a state of emergency declaration following today’s strong earthquake off the coast of California.

In a brief mention of the quake during a speech on transnational commerce and border security, Newsom said he was “concerned about damage, particularly in the northern part of the state.” Assessments are underway to check the extent of the destruction, he said.

“It’s another reminder of the state that we live in and the state of mind that we need to bring to our day-to-day reality here in the state of California, in terms of being prepared for earthquakes,” Newsom said.

“I just want to thank everybody, particularly our local law enforcement agencies, for their outstanding work and working through their protocols as quickly and efficiently as they have,” he added.

Although the earthquake rattled near the Cascadia Subduction Zone, which is considered one of the biggest geohazards in the U.S., an expert said it did not raise the risk of an immediate megaquake. 

The earthquake took place in the Mendocino fault zone, where the Cascadia Subduction Zone ends and the San Andreas Fault begins. 

Harold Tobin, a University of Washington seismologist, said the earthquake did not rupture on the Cascadia subduction zone itself and that it was not likely to substantially increase strain there. 

A large earthquake can be expected once every 450-500 years on the subduction zone, which has remained quiet since 1700. The fault is building stress and could rupture in segments or along its full margin, which runs offshore along Northern Vancouver Island, in Canada, to Cape Mendocino. 

The subduction zone could reshape life in the Northwest United States. When the subduction zone ruptures, estimates suggest thousands of people will die and hundreds of thousands of buildings will be destroyed. Washington state emergency managers have told residents to prepare for two weeks of life without supplies or assistance. 

“We’re unprepared,” Robert Ezelle, the director of Washington state’s emergency management division, told NBC News for a recent story about how scientists are trying to untangle signs of when the megaquake might come.

The U.S. Geological Survey said in a post on X that today’s 7.0-magnitude quake off the coast of California was “primarily strike-slip,” a type of quake that occurs when two tectonic plates slide past one another.

This type of earthquake is less likely to cause a tsunami because the “movement is primarily horizontal with minimal vertical movement of the ocean floor.”

While tsunamis are still possible in some strike-slip earthquakes, they are more likely to be generated by quakes that originate where tectonic plates collide, particularly in subduction zones where one plate is being forced under the other, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The 7.0-magnitude earthquake is one of roughly 17 events that have rattled Northern California today.

A 5.0-magnitude quake was recorded west of Ferndale, a small city in Humboldt County, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The seismic activity appears to be concentrated around that county.

At least four events were recorded in the Ferndale area, with high activity also observed around the town of Petrolia, where at least 10 quakes ranging between 3.1 and 4.2 magnitude shook the Earth.

The earthquakes that rattled the West Coast and triggered a now-canceled tsunami warning on Thursday ruptured off the California coast north of the San Francisco Bay Area.

When today’s large quake struck off the coast, fear ran through Ferndale resident Caroline Titus.

“You always have that split second where you are assessing, is this a little one, a moderate one, a big one? And after that split second, I thought, ‘This is the big one,'” she said.

Titus, 62, ran outside her house, where she said she saw her car “jumping up and down off the ground.”

Her thoughts immediately turned to her 3-year-old granddaughter who attends preschool nearby. She ran to the preschool and breathed a sigh of relief: The kids were all outside, safe from any falling objects, in duck-and-cover mode under a play structure.

Back at her house, some of Titus’ belongings had crashed to the floor, including a large kitchen cabinet. She lost power for about half-hour, she said.

Overall, she said her neighborhood seemed to fare well. A large door fell off its hinges at a historic inn in town, she said, but otherwise, “everybody is just cleaning up broken glass and jars off grocery shelves and all of that.”

An estimated 10,000 customers are without power in Humboldt County, according to a Facebook post from California state Sen. Mike McGuire.

McGuire wrote that the state is sending immediate assistance to the county as well as neighboring Del Norte County. Local and state officials are coordinating the emergency response, he added.

“There are reports of some homes that have come off of foundations in the greater Eel River Valley region of Humboldt,” McGuire said.

Despite a scary tsunami warning, officials from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration now say that a damaging tsunami will not hit the West Coast.

Dave Snider, the tsunami warning coordinator for the NOAA, said the strength of the earthquake and the proximity to the shore forced it to issue the tsunami warning. But as his team continued to analyze the impact of the quake, he now does not believe a dangerous tsunami will strike.

“For the US West Coast, this is tricky stuff,” Snider said. “This is time-based. So we have to get that alert out, and then confirm, yes or no, that something is happening.In this case, thankfully, it looks like a destructive wave is not on the table today.”

Read more from NBC Bay Area.

BART, San Francisco’s public transit system, announced it is resuming normal train service following the earthquake.

Passengers can still expect delays, it said.

There have been no casualties reported so far near the epicenter of the earthquake in Humboldt County, California, according to a local official.

Humboldt County District 2 Supervisor Michelle Bushnell told NBC News that there are reports of broken water mains, broken windows and houses off of their foundation. The fire department is still going around assessing the damage, she said, with the tsunami warning the main concern at this time.

The tsunami warning for the coast of California and Oregon has been canceled, with the National Weather Service now saying no tsunami activity has been observed.

“Do not re-occupy hazard zones until local emergency officials indicate it is safe to do so,” the service said.

The San Francisco Zoo said on X that it has evacuated guests, closed its doors and moved employees to higher ground due to the tsunami warning.

Harold Tobin, the director of the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network, said the 7.0-magnitude temblor was a strike-slip earthquake about 50 miles offshore.

Strike-slip earthquakes take place when two plates slide past one another.

“It is not impossible for a strike-slip earthquake to produce a tsunami,” Tobin said.

The quake ruptured in the Mendocino fault zone, at the intersection of three tectonic plates.

“This is the exact point where the Cascadia Subduction Zone ends to the south and the San Andreas Fault begins,” Tobin said. “It’s the most seismically active place in California, overall, over the past decades. It’s not a surprise to get an earthquake of this magnitude.”

Tobin said this was the highest-magnitude earthquake produced in the area since the 1990s.

Tobin said he had not seen reports of wave damage as of about 11:30 a.m., which likely meant the risk of a large, damaging tsunami was receding, though he said the Tsunami Warning Center would make the ultimate determination.

The tsunami warning extends from Davenport, California, to the border between Douglas and Lane counties, in Oregon.