PORTLAND, Ore. – A magnitude 5.3 earthquake jolted an area about 140 miles off the southern Oregon coast Wednesday night. A National Earthquake Information Center spokesman in Golden, Colo., says there was no danger of a tsunami from the shallow quake, which was felt by residents in southern Oregon and northern California.
The quake was originally rated at magnitude 5.9 but that was adjusted downward based on additional information.
Geophysicist Rafael Abreu says there were no immediate reports of damage.
He says reports of people feeling the quake ranged from Coos Bay and North Bend on the Oregon coast as far north as Portland, Ore. In California, "felt reports" came from Santa Rosa and Sebastopol, north of San Francisco.
Abreu says the quake occurred in an area of the Pacific where the Juan de Fuca Plate and the Pacific Plate are sliding past each other in a horizontal motion.
