A monster 7 magnitude earthquake rocked northern California on Friday, triggering a tsunami warning that panicked residents.
The earthquake struck at 10.44am, 45 miles off the coast of Eureka, with an aftershock felt in San Francisco shortly afterwards.
The ensuing tsunami warning was blasted to Californians phones, telling them to seek higher ground immediately.
‘You are in danger!’ it warned.
By 12pm PST, the tsunami warning had been canceled.
But the initial impact rocked households and churned waves in backyard swimming pools.
Water was seen sloshing around the edge of a swimming pool in Northern California during Wednesday’s 7.0-magnitude earthquake in Northern California
Light fittings were filmed swaying as shoppers bought groceries at a supermarket in Davis
This map shows the epicenter of the earthquake, just off Eureka. A tsunami warning has now been issued for the Northern California coast, including the Bay Area, as well as parts of Oregon
Images shared on social media showed water splashing in and out of a swimming pool, while light fittings swayed in a supermarket in Davis.
California is bisected by the San Andreas Fault, the boundary between the Pacific and North American tectonic plates.
The 750 mile fault’s northern end terminates offshore near Eureka.
Earthquakes occur along the border between two tectonic plates – such as the San Andreas fault.
Tectonic plates are constantly moving but sometimes they get stuck together by their edges.
Eventually, the stress of the moving plates will unstick them, with the energy released by this unsticking causing earthquakes.
California has long been braced for a historic earthquake locals have nicknamed ‘The Big One.’
Seismologists say the San Andreas fault produces a quake of magnitude 7.8 or above every 150 to 200 years that would occur inland, rather than offshore like Thursday’s tremor.
California was rocked by a devastating 6.9-magnitude tremor dubbed the Loma Prieta earthquake in October 1989 that killed 63, injured more than 3,700 and caused $6 billion worth of damage.
And in April 1906, San Francisco was famously-destroyed by a 7.9-magnitude whose epicenter sat just two miles off the coast of the City by the Bay.
More than 3,000 people were killed and 80 percent of the city’s buildings were destroyed.
Experts warn the long-feared ‘Big One’ would have an epicenter that sits inland and produce far worse devastation.
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