again, we were on our way to a story. hi, sir. did you just feel that earthquake we had. >> yes. >> a short time ago. >> yeah. >> tell us -- tell us where you were going and what kind of sensation it was for you. >> oh, i was in my office down there. i felt a very strong shake. >> you fet a strong shake. did you feel the earthquake yesterday. >> no, yesterday i was in a boat some he didn't feel it. >> you were on a boat yesterday. >> yeah. >> so today, can you tell us kind of what kind of feeling was it and for you, did it feel like it went on for a long time? >> it was fairly long. it's like a swinging movement. and it's kind of weird, but at first i thought it's like, i was in a boat so i thought i was sea sick or something but it was

fairly strong. >> so you were on a boat yesterday. you already have some boat legs going on. so again, we are here in anaheim. we're on our way to another story, an officer involved shooting down the street on the 91 freeway when we stopped at this carl's junior, a lot of people definitely feeling that one. a strong swaying motion that went on for at least 30 secs. guys, back to you. >> so strong, healthy. we now understand that the second earthquake that we felt again as you see on your screen, it was the initial reports and it tends to always get downgraded was a 7.1 and certainly everybody would agree that's what it felt like but it is now a 6.9. healthy, thank you very much. we're going to go to jonathan gonzales up in our newsroom and jonathan, what do you know on your end as i toss to you, i can tell that you we have just heard from lax. they are now inspecting every runway after the 6.9 quake. that is certainly understandable as first responders throughout

southern california and throughout the state of california are responding to this. >> robert, we were speaking with mayor garcetti yesterday. when erg quakes like these happen, even if we don't feel as strong they felt it out in ridge crest. they're making sure that everything is structurally safe. you have all the fire departments and police departments making sure their structures and buildings are safe so they can continue to operate. no doubt right now l.a.x. is taking steps right now to determine that it is safe enough to fly out of there and, of course, land planes. it is something i guarantee is happening right now. we're still waiting on word from them and monitoring social media to see what people are feeling. i was out in the burbank area, instantly felt shaking and noticed it was is not stopping. we knew it was bigger than a smaller aftershock we'd been feeling like the one this morning, the 5.4. we started making our way to the studio with some colleagues. one thing we heard earlier even from that person that beverly was speaking with is people who

have lived in southern california a long time we're used to earthquakes and anticipate them. there were 56,000 people tonight at the dodger game and what's crazy was that the donors kept playing once that earthquake hit in the bottom of the fourth inning.i don't know if we have the video. let's see it here. >> that's four strikeouts for eric lawyer. two gone here in the fourth for keke hernandez. and there's shaking we're seeing in the cameras and that we're feeling here at dodger stadium. i think we've got another earthquake. >> we definitely have an earthquake going on. >> it's a pretty good one, too. >> people in the upper deck are moving a little bit. >> i would not want to be sitting in one of the first rose

in the upper deck. i guess we kind of are. 6.4 magnitude the other day. how are they continuing to play baseball? >> i don't understand how the players can't feel it. maybe it's feel it more the higher up you are. >> you can see that shaking there. i don't know if it was joe in the booth there. you can hear them ask the question, how are they still playing baseball. we love dodgers crowds. they were making that shaking -- it was def the earthquake. the padres and dodgers playing right now. they continued. as far as i know they have not stopped the game for any reason. that game has continued. you see people in the crowd looking at each other the way we all did. are we feeling another one? is this what we think it is. that's the feeling we get if you've grown up in southern california. >> we're following breaking news out of the los angeles area

right now where you can see there, this is a dodgers game at the stadium and you can visibly see it shaking. we understand that yesterday's 6.4 magnitude quake was actually a foreshock followed by a 5.0 followed by tonight's 7.1 earthquake and we also understand there has been a 5.5 aftershock. so let's welcome john vidally, a professor of seismology at usc. he is joining us by the phone right now. can you take us through this sequence of events and describe what they mean? >> at the ontario airport. >> 6.4 yesterday. foreshocks, 5.5 aftershock at 4:00 a.m. this morning and just now, we had the 7.1 earthquake basically in the same place extending the fault that seemed to break yesterday. and it had a large foreshock and

it's having continuing aftershocks. so this area out near ridge crest is getting hit hard. >> is there any way of knowing what to expect next? >> we have to give the same answer. there's a small chance, a 5% chance or so something bigger might come. quite a small chance, but that's our best forecast. we'll watch the developing size nisity and see how it falls off but i wish we were able to predict earthquakes. >> well, what we're looking at right now the inside of a restaurant where the chandeliers are swaying. what i have been listening to is people describing a feeling of seasickness, not really shaking but like a swaying. what does that mean? >> well, it's because we're a long way away from where the earthquake be happened, more than 100 miles away. a lot of the really jittery motions in the waves coming to us.

the waves last quite a while partly because they spread out. the earthquake probably takes 15 or 20 seconds. ground breaking. this event shook longer than the one yesterday and i guess maybe twice as strongly in the l. a. basin. >> so where did the earthquake actually happen? >> it's out in the same place as yesterday. just a little bit to the east north of ridge crest. so out on the farside of the sierra nevada, southern end of the mountains. >> describe what kind of damage comes from something of this magnitude. what are we talking about structurally for roads, bridges, buildings, et cetera? >> well, it's a.71. the buildings right nearby will be quite hard hit. it's highly variable. just because it's a magnitude

7.0 couldn't mean we know how strong the shaking is right next to it. that's strong enough a lot of old buildings could be badly damaged. i think new buildings probably would do okay. it could be landslides and settlement. and it's just going to take time to figure out what's happening in terms of pipes and power lines and water lines breaking. but being close to magnitude 7.0 causes a lot of damage. >> i understand the mayor has been sending out first responders as you can see. they're literally going door to door checking homes and roads. how long does something like that take? and also, what is recommended for people in the area to do right now? >> well, they should sit tight. you know, if they're in a fragile structure get out and move to the open air. there could be and probably will be lots more aftershocks they'll feel. so they should be i guess be

making sure they take what water they have and their toilets and water heaters and making sure they know how to use it. i think just stay put and you know, try not to disrupt the efforts of people rushing around fixing things. i guess just be ready for aftershocks. there's not that much special to do aside from preparing what they can prepare. >> as far as earthquakes go, what does a 7.1 mean as compared to a different number, higher or lower? is this -- how significant is the number 7.1? >> well, just for comparison, the 6.4 yesterday probably only had about a fifth of the energy release so this event is much bigger. it looks like the fault that broke was 20 or 30 miles long. it probably moved three or four

yards, three or four meters. in this earthquake. you know, it's not nearly as long as the big one in southern california which would be 200 or 300 miles of the san andreas fault system, not just 20 or 30 kilometers. but 7 is as big as anything we've had in the past couple of decades. we have to go back to the '90s and landers earthquake to find the last one close to this big. >> all right. professor john vidale, thank you very much for all that information. we appreciate it. >> good luck. >> thank you. let's go to lester holt, nbc's lester holt who is in santa monica. hi, lester. >> good evening. >> what did you experience? >> well, i was with my wife and one of my sons. we were in a movie theater in downtown santa monica, and began to feel a tremble. i held my wife's hand. we looked at earthquake, there

was no panic, you could hear everyone in the theater saying the same thing. then it seemed to kick into a second gear and then people started to get up. we you know decided to get out. there's something freaky about an earthquake in a dark theater. everyone was orderly. we made our way to the stair well. and i went down several floors to the street level. there was no panic. there was one woman who was sobbing, was you know, very distraught. understandably. but we got on the street and it was hard to tell who felt what. if you're out on the town, maybe you didn't feel it. but across the street, there was a hotel. we could see people gathered in the lobby around the tv watching the local news coverage of this. i just spoke to one of my neighbors who was here in our building who talked about this is the strongest one she has felt and it was absolutely scary. neighbors were knocking on doors

checking on other neighbors here. so it was -- i've been in a lot of quakes and a lot of parts of the world. this one got my attention. i'll tell you that. >> did you feel the aftershock? and as a person who has been through this sort of thing before, do you have any kind of understanding what to expect from here out? >> well, it's a little confusing. i was just watching some of the coverage. my understanding is that, please back me up on this is they're now saying what we experienced yesterday was a foreshock and what would happen here within the hour was the actual quake. i've never quite seen that happen that you would go from a large quake to an even larger quake as an aftershock or a foreshock. you know, that's out of my wheel house. but last i heard there had been 1400 aftershocks from the event yesterday and there were two smaller ones before that. there was one apparently in the middle of the night around 4:00

a.m. my wife and i both woke up and didn't know why. it must have been that one. keep in mind i'm in santa monica. i'm standing where i am right now is about a black and a half from the beach. about 120 miles from ridge crest. the epicenter of this latest quake. the fact that we felt it this strong folks, i've spoken to were all looking at each other saying what if this had been closer to los angeles, 10, 15 million people here. what that would have been like. i think it's certainly raise agawareness now of our vulnerability to these things and looking around at construction and all the earth quake retrofitting over the last several decades and really making people consider that question are we prepared. >> have you seen any of what mayor gil garcetti has described at the somewhat door to door effort among first responders? we've been listening to sirens and seeing emergency vehicles.

and seeing video of first responders looking at homes, looking at the roads. are you witnessing anything like that? >> no, i mean, you may have heard background emergency vehicle just went screaming by. that's friday night in santa monica. hard to know if that's related. i haven't seen any of that. i frankly didn't know what to expect. we walked out of the theater due to the intensity shaking. i certainly was thinking we were going to witness some daniel outside. we saw none of that. i immediately came home and collected all our rooms and pictures and things that might have fallen off. everything seemed in order. you know, i noted when we were talking about yesterday's quake that it seemed to go on for a very long time. this one also had the same rolling motion in which you kind of feel it and you think okay, we're going to ride through this but it was that second jolt that you starred thinking okay, i don't know how much this thing is going to intensify. so let's get out of here.

i don't frankly know if that was the right thing to do if we were in danger being in the theater but somehow, i think our natural instinct is you want to get out. >> i don't blame you. it seems like the news is officially following you at this point. i'm. >> so much for days off. >> no kidding. people are describing, i've only felt an earthquake once in my life. ironically it was in new york city a few years ago. you probably remember that. i remember things shaking and a couple of things falling off the shelves. being a native new yorker, i didn't even know what was going on. it certainly seems like people in that area are taking it with a grain of salt and smiling about it. hopefully they're not going to go home to find damage and hopefully no injuries. what they're all describing is this feeling of vertigo or like a seasickness. is that what it really feels like. >> yes, i grew up on the west coast mostly in california but spent four years in alaska and

my father was in the military and we had earthquakes there. and here. i can tell you that i didn't necessarily feel it this time but often they start off so slightly that you almost feel like you're trembling like it's you. like you're suddenly feeling faint or something. then as it begins to crank up, you realize it's an earthquake. i know that feeling that vertigo feeling. i have been in quakes not only along the west coast but i covered the horrible disaster in haiti i think it was 2010 in which there was a huge loss of life. some of the aftershocks from there biggest i can remember was about 6.5. there were some very large ones. i also covered the earthquake and nuclear disaster in japan. i believe that was 2011. i think that was 2011, and again, we had some very, very big aftershocks there. but most of the ones i've been in tend to be a sharp jolt and short in duration. both of these felt very long.

i haven't heard what the official duration was but they seemed to go on for a very long time. was we got to our feet to exit the theater it's hard to know at what point it stopped. we're making our way downstairs again, as orderly as possible. and there was no direction from the theater staff. i don't blame them. they wouldn't have had time to react that quickly. as i said, it felt like the right thing to do. >> lester holt, thank you so very much. sorry for ot interruption in your vacation time. thank you. >> you can blame mother nature. >> exactly. thank you. >> let's go to nbc news molly hunter who is in ridge crest, the actual epicenter where this latest official earthquake happened followed by an aftershock. molly, what did you feel where you are? >> melissa, hey, it was incredibly strong. so we were actually in the hotel. i was actually already asleep

ahead of today show live shot. we were in bed lights off. it was really, really strong. all of a sudden. kind of started quite gradually and got really violent. it was so much stronger than anything i felt the 5.4 this morning. quite forcefully. but this was extraordinarily scary and very strong. everything in the hotel started shaking, the room absolutely kind of -- there were a couple archways started creaking but of course, when you're sound asleep and kind of wake up, you're not exactly sure what's going on. quickly grabbed our stuff. the alarms in the hotel started going off loudly, kind of curtains cape down in the hotel. a u few things on the deck went off. and just grabbed our stuff, ran out of the hotel as the alarm was going off. as soon as we got out of the hotel, everyone else in the hotel was running out, lots of families, kids without shoes and

looked over and saw huge plumes of black smoke, got in the car, drove a few blocks. it was a big house on fire. firefighters were already on the scene but huge thick plumes of black smoke. and i know you guys don't have the video yet. we shot krid video on the scene and spoke with the family that was inside that house at the time. we're feeling another aftershock right now. really strong. sorry it's still going. >> all right. >> molly. >> really strong. >> you're describing certainly much more violent than whatever else we've been hearing. > i need to interrupt for a moment. there is a press conference going on with the usgs. >> up north it's just slightly to the northwest of the main shock our early warning system is saying 5.7 with 26 seconds till it gets here. the one that was a 5, 4.9, we felt, so this assuming that the

magnitude isn't really estimated my guess is we'll feel this as it comes through. >> in about ten seconds. >> can we expect this magnitude of aftershocks throughout the rest of the evening. > yeah, the largest is likely to be a six. >> here we go. feeling it now. >> there it is. there it is. there it is. >> feel it? >> yeah. >> that was the phone ringing. >> that was less than i felt from the one that was labeled as 4.9. >> yeah. >> all right. >> so clearly we're a long ways away from the erg quake. remember that the people in ridge crest are going through a lot worse than this. we already had damaged houses and structure fires out of the first earthquake. this is going to have been more intense shaking. okay. this came through just as a 3.5.

>> lucy, all on the same fault line as the 6.4. >> the same fault system. it appears to have multiple strands to it. we've already seen the two perpendicular ones. i think they got the magnitude wrong because yeah. unless it hasn't come through yet. boom. >> can you explain the shake alert again? because some people just got the initial report that it, quote unquote, wasn't working. >> okay. >> can you explain again that -- >> let's let the usgs handle that one. >> so yeah, so the system worked. >> that was a 5.1. >> yeah. >> so the system, the shake alert system worked both on usgs side and on the shake alert l. a. side. the reason why alerts or notifications didn't go out to l. a. county is that the threshold for shaking was set

above what the stipulated shaking revealed. so it was just the way that the system was designed. in fact, the same thing happened again tonight. my understanding the alerts did not go out on shake alert la. the magnitude that was estimated with an early warning system was 6.2. so the initial magnitude estimate was too low. consequently, the intensities were below thatthreshold. the system is not perfect. what was experienced in the pasadena, l. a. area were not damaging ground motions. what's going on in up in ridge crest, those are damaging ground motions. these folks are really feeling it. >> what is the chance of another large quake like this or even larger tonight? >> well, as dr. jones had said, there's a 5% chance that in could be followed by an even

larger quake. well. >> the number of 5% is usually for a few days. the most likely time is within a day which is why we just saw 30 hours or so, 36 hours. >> you said earlier you don't recall any size earthquakes sequence where a 7.1 was followed by a greater earthquake. >> flow, be no, in california i don't remember one that's had that series. there are places elsewhere in the world. there was a 8.5 that was a foreshock to a 9.5 in chili. >> in california in the size missity of the state you've never seen anything follow a 7.1? >>. >> boy, yeah, but that doesn't mean. >> no, we have in nevada. we have in nevada, the fairfield earthquakes. >> the take away here though is that we have just seen between yesterday and today, quakes that

we say are main shocks can actually be foreshocks to larger quakes. >> we won't know till it does or doesn't happen. >> 7.1 the same depth for the most part as a 6.4. >> well, it's 17 kilometers. >> yeah, the epicenter is a little bit deep he ever. we do have geologists out in the field. we haven't gotten reports back. they'll be able to go out. five, ten miles. >> that's the ten miles down whereas the one yesterday was more like six or seven miles down. however, a bigger earthquake also involves a larger fault. it still may very well, probably this is coming to the surface. and you know. >> is there. >> what you're really worried about is are we going to trigger something outside of this region. probably not. >> why. >> because we're too far away. the ability to trigger another earthquake is very spatially

defined. the most likely to trigger it is at the same fault. as you go away with distance, it becomes much less likely. >> how far is that from the san andreas. >> quite a ways. >> it's not even on that figure. it's over 100 miles to the san andreas from this location. >> the gar lock fault is another long fault closer. if we were going to be triggering something really big, it might be a source for that. when landers happened near the san andreas, it didn't happen. but it was a possibility. a low probability possibility. the guar lock luckily runs through some of the most isolated parts of california. >> you said yesterday there were two faults making this l pattern so there was the other leg. the top part. >> >> just listening to dr. lucy jones in in california telling us what i thought was pretty interesting things saying number

one, the fought line is getting bigger, there's more issues with that. also saying that every earthquake makes it possible that another one is on the way. and, of course, as they were talking they're live during the news conference, they actuality felt one and people in the newsroom said things were shaking in newsroom. that's the second one today being felt in las vegas. >> i believe she on live television. >> our affiliate in los angeles knbc as they're covering this very interesting press conference with the usgs. the woman in the middle you're looking at is dr. lucy jones, a seismologist. and they're sort of taking us through the possibilities of what could happen next. let's just catch you up on what has happened. >> yesterday, there was a 6.4 magnitude what is called foreshock. followed by a 5.0 and then tonight's 7.1 magnitude earthquake in the area called ridge crest. there has been a 5.5 aftershock

and just during that press conference, there have been further aftershocks. dr. jones is saying that there is probably about a 5% chance that this fault line could lead to another actual earthquake. but it seems to be more likely that there will be more aftershocks instead. this is about 100 miles away from the san andrea fault. they were describing a different fault in that area that are apparently the fault line is getting bigger. we're still trying to figure out what that means. let's go back to molly hunter who is in ridge crest which is the epicenter of this entire event. and in the areas that are further away like los angeles and las vegas, people are describing sort of this swaying feeling. you can see the chandeliers swaying back and forth. but in ridge crest where molly is, it is a different story. it is much more violent. molly, please take us through again what you experienced.

>> melissa, while we were just listening to the press conference account aftershock they felt at that press conference we felt here close to the epicenter. it's just an incredibly constant violent shaking of the ground. whether you're in the car or standing outside, i was standing outside for one of them. in the car for the other. it's just incredibly violent. the thing though even though they said there were a couple of strong ones we're looking at the usgs site right now. we're getting small aftershocks every couple minutes. while they won't be felt in l.a., here we can feel much smaller aftershocks. i'll take you back about an hour, the 7.1. i was sound asleep in the hotel. we're standing outside of the hospital. of course, when you're woken up from a deep slumber, i had no idea what was going on. it was really strong shaking and you come to and i realized exactly what was happening. it kept going what felt like

forever. just a few seconds i'm sure we'll have to look at the usgs updated but violent shaking. there was no kind i have gentle rolling which is what i felt in l.a. on friday. this was a serious shaking, the whole room felt like it was going back and forth. the curtains came off. everything started off falling off the dechk and got up, put on shoes, grabbed stuff, ran outside. everyone was running outside the hotel at that point. families, of course, lots of kids outside. the alarms were sounding. all the power was out. almost immediately. and the whole hotel you know, i can't speak to its foundation. i have no idea how it's built. there are columns outside and there's kind of an overhang over the driveway. and it was just going back and forth. it looked like it was on kind you have hinges, melissa. >> is there anybody out there helping take you through this especially considering that you are at a hotel, considering that people are probably not from that area? did they guide to you stairs?

did you take an elevator? are they keeping you updated? >> so we were on the first floor on purpose. we obviously came up here to cover an earthquake. we had rooms on the first floor for safety reasons. i saw absolutely no one on my way out. alarms did sound. several seconds into the quake. and as soon as i realized kind of looking up at the various flimsy doorways in my room as it went back and forth, we ran straight out. it was a very short and very fast run straight out into the front of the hotel. we got in the car immediately because we saw black smoke a few blocks away. and there was already a house on fire. we arrived firefighters were already on the scene. hoses going strong and we spoke with the young family or young woman who had been right next to the house. her sister was inside the house we spoke with. the sister of the woman and the niece of the woman they were just kind of distraught absolutely in tears.

really upset. they said their sister and aunt did get out okay. all of their stuff was destroyed. we're really shaken up here. it's incredibly violent. all of these aftershocks keep coming. there's no one necessarily directing traffic or helping figure out where we should be going. we're standing outside the hospital with other media and ambulances keep going in and out. there is a command center set up at city hall which we'll check out shortly, as well. >> we have definitely seen video of powerful looking fires and lots of emergency vehicles and i understand that emergency crews first responders are going door to door. the mayor there in los angeles mayor gil garcetti is saying they're making sure that the structures are safe. they're checking out roads and bridges. i understand that lax is inspecting all of their runways thoroughly to see if planes can

take off and land. we're seeing pictures of people, not right now. we're looking at a very powerful fire. i don't know what that is. >> i can't see the video. does it look like a house and kind of thick black smoke. >> yes, it looks like very thick black smoke and a fireball. we can't tell whether or not a it's a house it's a structure. >> at least the structure we showed up it was one of the only things on fire in the small vicinity of ridge crest. it was a house what we saw at least kind of media and immediately arrived. fire trucks were on scene holding people back. but we did speak with the sister of the woman i said as you house it was. she said everything was destroyed. within minutes, we arrived when there were still bright orange flames, thick black smoke and within minutes the firefighters had put it out and there was nothing there. >> describe what the aftershocks

feel like compared to the earlier earthquake, please. >> i was in los angeles when that 6.4 hit on friday. and it was similar to what we heard lester describing before. he was obviously in l. a., as well. it was a rolling feeling almost. and it lasted for a few seconds. a few seconds longer in l.a. because the energy we've heard from the u subpoena gs was moving around kind of a elongating that actual sensation in los angeles. i felt the 5.4 really strongly this morning. i was sitting down and that was the strongest thing i'd felt since we had been up here. pretty much all day feeling 3.2s, 3.4s, there was a 4.1 pretty strongly but nothing, i can't overstate how stronging that 7.1 just felt and how different it felt. i've never felt an earthquake that strong. i grew up in california. don't remember much about the '89, but this was a violent shaking.

i'm trying to describe my entire room was if it was going back and forth on hinges. we're just getting in front of the camera for you right now. >> great, thank you. >> i can speak with you. in two seconds. >> terrific. while you're getting in front of the camera, and thank you, molly, how long would you describe that these episodes lasted. sorry, say it one more time. >> do you have any sense even though that it was panic, do you have any sense of how long each episode lasteded? that 7.1 how long we think that lasted. it's so hard to tell because we were all asleep ahead of our today show live shot. 30 seconds do you think? it felt like five minutes but it certainly wasn't. so melissa, just so you know, i said i was on the first floor.

that was our camera man who said he was on the third floor. and moving back and forth for about a minute. it was a much different sensation, of course, when are you up above and what floor were you on angie? >> lights felt down. everything on my deck fell down. everything fell. and then i'm looking at our photographer. >> sorry, we're all just standing here and had slightly different experiences and gathering. >> it knocked you out of bed. it looks like of all the rooms, i was not knocked out of bed. i kind of panicked and got up out of bed as soon as i saw the windows kind you have going back and forth. being a couple floors up, clearly was a much different experience. at least look at least 30 seconds up to a minute if you were on a higher floor. it was really, really scary. >> somebody was knocked out of bed? >> that's -- so. >> third floor. >> and literally knocked out of

bed. melissa, we're getting our ducks in a row. >> we're going to let you set up because obviously, we're distracting you from what you need to do right now. we'll check back with you and your crew in a few moments. we want to go back to the usgs press conference. >> 7.1. the region has to sustain a 7.1 150 miles away. >> absolutely. probably somewhat isolated. i would be very surprised if there was much widespread impact in the los angeles area. but clearly up near the epicenter region, the ridge crest area, those folks are having to deal with a lot right now. we haven't gotten any direct reports here, but i'm sure there's lots of damage and they are probably dealing with aftershocks, as well. >> waiting to hear from your gee

ols, what information will they provide? >> they're going to be out in the field as soon as they can and as best they can. obviously it's nighttime right now. they may be limited. this is the naval arizona weapo air station. they may not be able to get out there at night. when they get out, they'll have to be escorted. all those logistics are something they're going to determine. >> what they're looking for is finding a fault where we find that motion that's happened because we are seeing with our size mom teres we see these waves coming off of here and calculate back. they're probably coming off of the surface. when we get those field geology it's like this fault has moved. and so it's to -- it's ground. >> the navy is testing munitions out there. >> no. >> is there any chance anything

underground from the navy may have triggered it. >> we've set off pretty large nuclear blasts without setting off a earthquake. the largest is a magnitude 2. >> the epicenter for this one is ten miles beneath the surface. >> is there anything about this earthquake that's surprising at all to you? >> the size. >> no, in a way, as dr. jones was explaining after the 6.4, there was a possibility of having a larger event. and sure enough, we did. and you know, the mechanics of these two faults, the conjugate faulting makes a lot of sense. from a scientific or gee logic perspective. i would say no, there's not really any surprises we've seen so far. >> what can be you learn from it. >> hopefully number one, learn more about how earthquakes work. number two, i think there's teams out there looking at damage, how buildings responded. every earthquake is a chance to learn what will worked, what

didn't work and make improvements. >> obviously a better understanding of earthquake triggering. hopefully we'll be able within this -- i can go and rattle off all these previous earthquakes where we've seen one trigger the other. the recordings we have of those earthquakes are primitive compared to what we have now and we don't really know all of what the mechanisms were on this erg quake. with the system we put in place to do early warning, we now have hundreds and hundreds of stations that are out there giving us much clearer pictures of what's going on on the fault. so now we're going to be able to see with much greater resolution than in the past what the part of which fault moved and how did the pattern progress and start and, of course, there's always the hope we'll find something that's different about the foreshocks. >> let me just -- >> let me just add in terms of learning the shake alert system which has been put in place in the last few years and is constantly being tested.

this is an excellent test case for that system. we'll be able in the coming days be able to analyze how the system performed, are improvements required. i suspect yes, maybe in terms of estimating the magnitude. there's another point where we'll be able to build on this event and make some progress. >> i'm seeing a report from usgs that this fault is so shallow, it was technically bob ground. listed as a like a line on a violent intensity scale. >> what is that. >> not something coming from a scientist. >> i doubt that's coming from the usgs. earthquakes cannot occur bob ground. yeah. >> there are some times where our location might show up as being a negative depth. that means something went wrong in how we located it. the depth is much harder to constrain. all our stations are at the surface. basically triangulation it's easier to see where they are not

horizontal direction than going down. >> the depth of this is similar to what you've seen before historically in this region. >> yes, in this region, we've had somewhat deeper faults. the area is that idea of redirecting the san andreas, we are seeing this area opening up. it is what the geologists call the basin and range system. you have the big fault that's on the side of the sierra nevada and then we have the faults forming all of the different ranges that go out through nevada all the way out to the wasatch in utah. everything between the wasatch and here is called the basin and range. so it's an area with lots of faults that's spreading out and some of them happened by faults that move up and down and some of them happen by these horizontal ones squeeding out along the way. and the rate at which they happen summed up is about 10 to 20% the rate of what we see on

the san andreas. and the sort of geological discussion is that because it's going to eventually take over from the san andreas or is that some other sort of millions of years, not on our time scale. but still, we sometimes call this a complex plate boundary. two-thirds of the motion happens on the san andrea. the rest gets smeared out through other faults. this is the 10% to 20% smeared out to the east. >> you said the wasatch. do we see these kind of events in utah. >> yeah. the farther east you go, the let frequent they are. but we're pretty sure there are magnitude 7s under salt lake city about once every 1,000 years. here along through this region, it's -- as i said, i think 1915 and 154 and 1872 were all close to magnitude 67 coming up somewhere between here and up to reno. >> about five more questions.

>> can you talk a little bit. >> a question about the conjugate system. the fact these two are conjoined, does that add any energy to it's just happenstance. >> as far as we can tell, the better picture we get of the earthquakes is we put in more instruments the more often we see municipal fault in the events. we think they probably most of them are like this. we're finally being able to resolve it. >> yeah, the way we describe is it is earthquakes were six plir when we had less data. >> we're following breaking news out of los angeles and as far away as las vegas where a series of what are called foreshocks, an earthquake and aftershocks are occurring. the scientists are basically taking us through what is going on. it's about 100 miles away from the san andreas fault. it happened in an area the epicenter in a place called ridgecrest, described as extremely violent shaking.

this is from ridgecrest, that's a house on fire that nbc's molly hunter told us that mpb got out safely. what we just learned from that mpbs conference is every earthquaking is an opportunity to learn what works, what doesn't as far as building structures, the warning systems, the cause of the quakes themselves, the fault lines and all of that. basically what they're saying is there's a converging of different faults that are now spreading. and we reto expect about 5% chance of another actual earthquake but most likely after shocks that they are experiencing right now. joining me now by phone is nbc news "20/20" ben pu in las vegas, nevada where he felt the earthquake. there was as actual nba game going on that i believe had to be stopped because of it. ben, take us through what you experienced please. >> i'm right here on the las vegas strip. i felt about approximately 30

seconds of relatively violent side to side shaking. i was indoors. relatively violent but i think as far as most people were concerned around here, not something to be particularly afraid about. a lot of people have the ridgecrest earthquake on their minds. however, it still was very violent and was very, very surprising to all of us but it was -- it went relatively quickly and at some point, we all kind of looked at each other inside the restaurant and said should we go under the tables. by that time it abated. i stepped outside and decided to look around the strip. mccarron as far as i know is still continuing flights as normal. i see planes going above the right rail system that is the people mover on the strip is still operating perfectly normal. on the casino floors, in the lux yore, people are playing their games as usual. pretty much almost no

recognition of what just transpired here. it seems like most people are relatively unconcerned. i myself born and raise the in south california, i have weathered several erg quakes before. one was pretty big from what i can remember in my youth. when you live out west, this is something you deal with every now and then. most people ride it out and we'll see what happens. >> so people are going about their business. >> yeah. people -- you go out i just went through the casino floor in the lux yore, no response people are playing games and ordering drinks. have i not seen any damage physical or emotional whatsoever truth be told. i think that there is something to be said about the way that the hotels and buildings out west are built by very strict

codes. a lot of people here have this accepts of safety and they're not particularly concerned when an earthquake does strike. obviously we want to encourage people to bring safety bags, earthquake bags and be ready to evacuate at a moment's notice should the big earthquake hit at any time. people are going about their business. it's only like 9:00 out here on the west. people aren't concerned. they're still playing games and getting drinks. same old same old. >> i think i would be hiding under the table with my cocktail if i was there. i would be terrified. i wasn't raised in california the way you were. ben, we'll come back to you later. let's go back to molly hunter who is at the epicenter of all there ridgecrest, california. i believe we had her on the phone earlier. i believe we have her on camera now. molly, hello. there you are. bring us up to date what's going on since we last talked. >> right.

so just listening to the experience in las vegas, it could not be more different here. i was raised in california. i've never felt anything like that. i was trying to explain earlier kind of overestimate how scary it was. and to be in a closed space, to see your room kind of literally on hinges going back and forth. there wasn't a good way to move to stay safe. i kind of froze in my bed. i was sound asleep and weaken by this violent shaking. we heard in that press conference there was a smaller shake right before. i did not feel that. i clearly slept through that. this 7.1 was truly scary. got out of bed. the alarms started going on almost immediately. can you show our hotel is right over there. everything is dark. everything is out of power. you can't -- you see a sea of darkness. there are a lot of buildings usually lit up. where we are we're in front of the ridgecrest regional

hospital. there are generators. it is running on emergency power. we've been seeing ambulances coming in and out. there are helicopters overhead. sirens, police, emergency services out on the street. that fire you mentioned earlier immediately when we got out of the hotel, we got into the car, angie and i drove a few blocks. there was one single house just spewing flames, huge black plumes of smoke and we did shoot video making its way to you. we spoke with the people who knew the woman inside. we spoke with mer niece and sister. she got out safely. everyone any that house got out safely but all of her possessions everything was destroyed we saw the fire department on scene right there. at least three or four hoses by the time. >> we're looking at that right now. it is a fireball. >> within five minutes, though, they had shut it down. it was just kind of an absolute ruin. it was a pretty big structure. i didn't see it at the beginning

and couldn't tell how big a house it was. just the most powerful kind of flames into the sky. you can imagine as i just showed you, it's completely dark here. it was really obvious and easy to find in the skyline here. >> do you have any information whatsoever about how far away the power outage spreads? >> we don't. we're definitely making calls right now to figure out but actually after that 6.4 quake on friday, pg&e got people back and got customers back power quickly. by the time saturday rolled around, just a few hundred customers were still out of power. i hear a helicopter right overhead somewhere. it's right over there. everywhere i can see, right now, we drove a few miles that way. everything is in darkness. the hotel it's a marriott. the alarm system was clearly working. absolutely no power, no generator kicked in, no lights. nothing. lots of families sitting outside the hotel parking lot and

driving through that residential area where that house fire was lots of families sitting outside on their curbs having no idea whether to go back inside, keep their kids outside. it's hard to explain how scary it was. i know we live in california and a lot of people are used to shaking. that 6.4 on friday when we talked to people here in ridgecrest, people who lived here for generations said that was the most violent thing they ever felt. this was so much stronger. >> that says a lot. i have to say molly, i'm a little bit surprised considering everything we've heard about what first responders and pg&e crews are having to do now as far as checking out the roads, but the bridges, l.a.x. checking out run waze doing this all in the dark. i'm a little bit surprised to see so many people driving around. >> yeah, look, a lot -- there are a lot of civilian cars out there, a lot are emergency vehicles. all the cars we see all civilian

cars. look, there's no actual damage on the roads an that we can see. we're not seeing massive structural damage in front of us. i heard that hotel creaking. i would be really surprised if there's not some serious damage. i'm not going backing into that hotel anytime soon. let's see. you see. >> who is that directing things behind you? >> there's a man behind you. >> yeah. >> do you work for hospital. >> no, i'm volunteering. > you just came out to volunteer. >> yeah. i checked on my house and my shop. >> do you mind coming over? we're live with nbc right now. >> so i basically. >> come right over here. >> what's your name. >> warren cooper, own a handyman business here. i collected on my shop when the erg quake happened. i collected on my shop. ton of stuff was destroyed. i ran out. >> what kind of shop. >> i do brought iron gates and

welding, fabrication. i ran to my house. it's completely leveled. destroyed. shut the water main off. a gas main off. it was just a mess. made sure everything was okay. locked my dog up. >> is your dog okay. >> he's fine locked in my vehicle. went to my apartment. i take care of about 14 units. i did welfare collection on every one of them. >> knocked on every door. >> beat on every door. >> did people answer. >> absolutely. i got i made sure everybody was okay. i got their dogs out in the crates in the vehicles. kids loaded up. shut off the gas. >> how far away just to try to understand how far away is that from where we are right now. >> town's only about seven miles across. i'm on the very corner. i collected all my tenants got all their dogs to safety. shut off the water main, it was flooded there. place is trashed. >> all righty. >> second two stories. it was already second was all broken. i came down here. my sister is a nurse here. i knew i could be of good use

here and i'm loud and obnoxious. that's why they've got me here. >> helping direct traffic. talk to me how this felt different than the 6.4 on friday. >> different was i watched the cell phone tower almost come down on me which is crazy. those things wiggle a lot. the first one i was at my apartments happening and the screams were crazy. >> describe to me. >> just kid screaming just coming out crying and old ladies having looks like heart attacks in the doorways. i was just thankful i was there. i'm just the super. i take care of the property and i can't believe i was there and i took care of those people and i felt better about it. and yesterday, i we bound together. my whole family and cleaned out a convenience store for a local shop. >> did you feel the 5.4 this morning around 4:00 a.m. >> i was passed out i was

cleaning the convenience store till about 2:30 this morning. went home and slept and woke up and you know. >> i just described what it was like waking up to a 7.1 quake. what was yours experience waking up with the violent shaking. > i didn't wake up. >> you slept through that 5.4 this morning. >> i was tired. >> you were tired. >> i would not have slept through that you 5.4 this morning. that are a scary quake. we felt aftershocks all today. the 7.1. talk to me about your experience as soon as it starred shaking. > first thing i was with a group of friends. i had four people around me freaking out. i said stop. stop, don't move. keep your eyes open. worst thing is run to a building, run around. just stop. we were outside. we were fine. and then that's when we said let's go. we knew what to do. >> make sure your neighbors are okay, your house is okay. >> yeah, i checked on my house and it was gone. so i lost my house today. i don't know if i can even save it. so it sucks.

i just paid it off. so. >> how long have you lived there. >> five years. i paid pretty good on it because i wanted to get it over with. so it's on the ground. >> explain to me what that looks like. >> it's a mobile home. i bought a mobile home. i basically bought it for the property. >> it's on just describe for the viewers. basically triangles with screws on them. it separated and the whole side of it is on the ground. there's a four-foot drop. >> not tilted, it's off. >> there's a four-foot gap between one side of the floor and the other side. >> it's done. >> i'm so sorry about that. >> it's okay. i was needed out here. that's when i jumped in the trucks and we went here. >> now you're making sure that the hospital has the support they need. >> i'm out here. my best friend and business partner brandon is helping move equipment. setting up tables and chairs. we knew this was the place to go. >> i appreciate your time. >> thank you guys. >> i'm really sorry about your

house. >> no worries. it's life. it goes on, right. >> good attitude. >> that's a really good attitude. >> sounds like he's taking that in stride. that's a lot to handle. >> way more in stride than i would. >> and he's out there volunteering. that's absolutely incredible. are there a lot of other people walking around? where you are? >> you know what honestly, it's so hard to tell because it's so dark. there were a lot of people so as i had court show over there the hotels were over there. there were a lot of pedestrian over there. this is the hospital parking lot. so people have been walking in and walking out. i you can't drive in here. he was turning people around in here. it's hard to tell. i'm surprised as we're standing out here just how many cars are out here. you got to hope that actually you know, it's just people going to check on their families and houses and getting somewhere

safe. >> molly hunter, stay safe. knbc, listen to what they're telling us right now. >> she like many of our reporters were fanned out across the area. tonight covering other stories and she was in the san marino area and beverly, you felt it and you have also been talking to people who felt it there. what have you learned? >> well, we are in east pasadena. i got clarification a moment ago. conan is here with a scientist. i'm here with the citizens. listen to what they had to say as we were all inside the staple restaurant trying to enjoy some dinner. >> i thought i was getting dizzy because i just it started off slowly and then it went faster and faster. i saw the stop sign and it was moving. so and then i saw the tvs and they were also moving. that's when i got behind the door. >> it was the kind that it's just sort of undulates.

it's not jerky, but kind of like a sin wave. >> we were here yesterday. it's something that comes with where you live. >> at first we were like is that an earthquake. and then we noticed the sign was shaking. it felt like yeah, like a rolling almost like you're on a cruise ship. >> just the rolling i don't know, took quite a long while for it to stop which is really strange for not being a violent shaking. i've been through the ones that were pretty violent. >> so maybe no property damage in these environs but certainly a lot of rattled nerves. back to you in the studio. >> we just talked about how that orange county's sending their team. >> we are watching our affiliate in los angeles, knbc, doing their local coverage of this series of what is described as a

foreshock now that happened yesterday and now tonight, a 7.1 followed by many aftershocks. we are going to take a pause on this network and do an nbc news special report.