A strong, 6.2 earthquake has hit off the northern coast of California. Twitter has been flooded with reports of people describing the tremor, which reportedly came in waves.
The quake struck at 12:10 PST (20:10 GMT), approximately 38 kilometers west of the northern Californian community of Petrolia.
The earthquake was centered in the Pacific Ocean, according to reports, and state emergency services say they are monitoring any potential “secondary impacts.”
Weather services have warned that the quake has not made enough of an impact to issue any official tsunami warnings.
Witnesses have flocked to social media to describe the impact they felt, with many saying it was enough to wake them up.
Others heard ‘earthquake’ and ‘California’ and assumed for a moment it could be the massive quake across from San Andreas Fault that meteorologists have been warning about for years. This overdue earthquake, often referred to as ‘The Big One’ by Californians, could measure at least 7.8 in magnitude and cause massive destruction for the state.