Ridgecrest earthquake has absorbed 45 nuclear bombs, but its impact has been mitigated

"If this earthquake had occurred on the Garlock Fault, then yes, Bakersfield, the Mojave Desert cities, would have been more affected and L.A. would have felt more shaken," said Egill Hauksson, a seismologist at Caltech. "You generate energy, it accumulates and goes to the west and the south."