Earlier scientists warned that California is around 10 years overdue for a major earthquake – dubbed the ‘big one’.
This latest quake struck 107 miles (173km) west of Ferndale which is just north of San Fransisco in California.
Earlier on Thursday California was rocked by a 4.0 magnitude earthquake near Trabuco Canyon, between Los Angeles and San Diego.
California is located on the Ring of Fire, a hotspot for seismic activity and earthquakes, which runs around the Pacific Ocean.
Scientists continue to fear that the US West Coast is getting to be hit by a major earthquake – dubbed the “big one”.
A powerful earthquake in 1857 released some of the pressure in fault lines running beneath California, but much more still exists, and Robert Graves, a research geophysicist at USGS, suggests the ‘Big One’ could be overdue by 10 years.
Beneath California, the Pacific and North American tectonic plates are moving northward – although the former is moving quicker leading to a build up of tension.
Mr Graves said: “The San Andreas fault in southern California last had a major quake in 1857 (magnitude 7.9).
“Studies that have dated previous major offsets along the fault trace show that there have been about 10 major quakes over the past 1,000-2,000 years… the average time between these quakes is about 100-150 years.”
More to follow…