Northern California hit by magnitude 5.6 earthquake in Mendocino County

A preliminary magnitude 5.6 earthquake struck Mendocino County on Wednesday morning, triggering ShakeAlert notifications across Northern California.

The quake hit at 8:10 a.m. about 7 miles north of Redwood Valley, a lightly populated area in inland Mendocino County, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

USGS also reported a preliminary magnitude 2.5 quake in the same area about seven minutes later, a possible aftershock, followed by preliminary magnitude 2.7 and 2.6 quakes about an hour later.

No major damage has been reported so far, but shaking was felt as far away as Sacramento and some power outages were reported in Willits, near the earthquake's epicenter.

PG&E reported the outage at Willits at the same time the earthquake struck. The utility said 3,145 customers were affected and crews were working to restore power. 

USGS placed the quake at a depth of about 5 miles. Its impact alert level was listed as yellow, meaning some damage is possible.

The National Tsunami Warning Center said there was no tsunami warning, advisory, watch or threat from the earthquake.

Fort Bragg police, about 50 miles west of the epicenter on California's North Coast, said they were monitoring the situation and that no damage had been reported there.

Gov. Gavin Newsom's office said he has been briefed on the earthquake.

Redwood Valley is about 120 miles north of San Francisco and about 140 miles northwest of Sacramento.