(BIVN) – There is no tsunami threat to Hawaiʻi from the magnitude-7.0 earthquake that struck off the coast of California on Thursday. 

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center confirmed there was no threat to the Island or State of Hawaiʻi, following the earthquake that occurred at 8:44 a.m. (Hawaiʻi time) offshore Cape Mendocino near the coast of Northern California.

The earthquake, which was initially reported as a magnitude-7.3 before it was revised downward, did trigger a Tsunami Warning for coastal areas of California and Oregon. However, the warning was later lifted and the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said no destructive tsunami was recorded.

The U.S. Geological Survey provided this tectonic summary of the event:

The December 5, 2024, M 7.0 Offshore Cape Mendocino earthquake occurred approximately 100 km southwest of Ferndale, California, off the coast of northern California in the vicinity of the Mendocino Fracture Zone. This earthquake occurred in the vicinity of the Mendocino triple junction – the region where the Pacific, North America, and Juan de Fuca/Gorda plates meet. Focal mechanism solutions indicate that rupture occurred as a result of strike-slip faulting on a steeply dipping fault striking either east-southeast or north-northeast. The location, depth and faulting mechanism indicate that this event likely occurred on or near the Mendocino Fracture Zone, a fault zone that strike east-southeast and forms the boundary between the Pacific Plate to the south and the subducting Gorda Plate to the north.

Earthquakes are common in the region around the Mendocino triple junction. Oblique motion between the southern Juan de Fuca/Gorda plate and Pacific plate causes north-south compression within the Gorda plate and right-lateral translation along the boundary between the plates. The M 6.4 Ferndale earthquake occurred approximately 75 km to the east-northeast on December 20, 2022. A M 6.2 event occurred approximately 90 km east of the 2024 event, on December 20, 2021. In the past century, there have been at least 40 other earthquakes of M6 or larger, including five earthquakes M7 or larger, within 250 km of the December 5, 2024, earthquake. These prior earthquakes primarily occurred along the Mendocino transform fault, in the Cascadia subduction zone, or within the Juan de Fuca/Gorda plate.