Magnitude 4.9 aftershock of California quakes felt widely

RIDGECREST, Calif. (AP) — A magnitude 4.9 aftershock of last week's Southern California earthquakes has been felt widely in the region.

The U.S. Geological Survey says the quake occurred at 6:11 a.m. Friday and was centered about 5 miles (8 kilometers) northeast of the Mojave Desert city of Ridgecrest.

The quake was felt very lightly in the Los Angeles area.

There have been thousands of aftershocks of the magnitude 6.4 earthquake on July 4 and the 7.1 quake that occurred the next day.

The aftershocks have been dying off but are expected to continue for some time.

Seismologist Lucy Jones tweets that the 4.9 quake is normal and is having its own aftershocks.

The USGS says the probability of a 7.1 or larger quake has fallen to less than 1%.