The US Geological Survey (USGS) confirmed a huge earthquake has hit the US in Oregon – the next state up from California where two tectonic plates are causing havoc by raising speculation the so-called ‘Big One’ earthquake could happen at any moment. Today’s rocked the state of Oregon at 4.30m GMT (8.31am local time). No casualties have been reported as of yet and a tsunami alert is yet to be confirmed.
The quake today struck at a depth of 12km (7.4miles) off the coast of the state.
It was measured to have hit at around 170 mile away from the Oregon coast.
Social media users flocked online to share their concerns when the tremor hit.
One said: “We just had an earthquake. The table was shaking here in Oregon City. 6.4 near Bandon on the coast.”
Another said: “Just got a call from a colleague, #earthquake off the coast of #Oregon minutes ago.”
A third commenter said: “Oregon just had a 6.4 earthquake, I have a feeling we’re next.”
The incident comes after earthquake trackers in California have found 64 earthquakes over the past 24 hours.
This has led to many believing a huge magnitude eight or above quake – more commonly referred to as the Big One – is imminent.
Over the past 30 days, 3,279 tremors were recorded in the West Coast state.
And over the last 365 days, according to Earthquake Track, more than 17,700 earthquakes were felt throughout California.
California sits right on the boundary of the North American tectonic plate and the Pacific Plate.
The point where the two plates meet and grind up against one another is known as the San Andreas fault line
The fault line is where many predict the Big One will strike – a hypothetical magnitude 8 or higher cataclysm.
The Big One is a hypothetical magnitude 8 or higher earthquake that is believed to strike California every few hundred years. In 1906, California came close to the Big One when a magnitude 7.9 event destroyed much of San Francisco.
A Big One struck Chile in 1960 – the so-called Valdivia earthquake – peaking between magnitude 9.4 and 9.6 on the Richter scale.
The incident remains to date the most powerful earthquake ever record.