A series of earthquakes with magnitudes reaching 5.2 struck Friday evening in remote eastern California, an area shaken by a sequence of temblors a day earlier.
Inyo County sheriff’s dispatcher Carol Drew said no damage or injuries were reported, but the department received several calls about the quakes.
The quakes’ epicenters were just southeast of the town of Lone Pine in the arid Owens Valley below the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada, about 180 miles (290 kilometers) north of Los Angeles.
The U.S. Geological Survey said a 5.2 quake was followed by more than a dozen smaller quakes including several in the magnitude-4 range.
On Thursday, a magnitude-5 earthquake occurred in the same area. Dozens of mostly tiny aftershocks have followed.
The Owens Valley is a long, narrow feature lying between the towering peaks of the Sierra that rise abruptly on the west and the Inyo Mountains on the east. It is sparsely populated except for small cities and towns along U.S. 395 such as Lone Pine, which has about 1,600 residents.
The highway is a major route between Southern California and Sierra destinations.
A magnitude 5 quake is capable of causing considerable damage.
