Dr. Lucy Jones Confirms It Was an Earthquake

Dr. Jones tweets this afternoon went from informational to reassuring:

Yes, it was an earthquake. An M4.9 (current estimate) east of Barstow. We have seen quakes this size many times in the Mojave Desert.18127538

Dr. Lucy Jones@DrLucyJones· This location is near the Calico fault - which crosses the Mojave. It is more than 50 km from the San Andreas fault, so it will not change the probability of a San Andreas earthquake

Dr. Lucy Jones@DrLucyJones· If you want to share what you felt with the scientists, go to Did You Feel It? https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/ci40675215/executive#dyfi

Dr. Lucy Jones was previously at the US Geological Survey from 1985 to 2016. She was the local go-to person for the media to confirm the statistics and educate the public each time an earthquake occurred in Southern California. She has since founded The Dr. Lucy Jones Center for Science & Society which fosters the understanding & application of scientific information.

Her bio on twitter includes these facts:

• Seismologist
• Founder of @dljcss
• Author of The Big Ones (Doubleday)
• Viol Player.
• @TempoAction 
  • An original instrumental work by seismologist Dr. Lucy Jones, "In Nomine Terra Calens: In the name of a warming earth", allows the listener to hear Earth’s temperature data over the last 138 years. TEMPO Music for Climate Action (drlucyjonescenter.org)

An impressive affirmation of her reputation is within the title of a 2012 article from Smithsonian Magazine  Meet Lucy Jones, "the Earthquake Lady" 

But an even more extraordinary example of her dedication to educating and reassuring  Southern California residents in the midst of an earthquake was detailed, in an NBC-4 piece, when she retired from the US Geological Survey. A very young Dr. Jones  was on call to calm the 10 million people affected by the 1994 earthquake:

  A lasting image of Jones and her dedication to her role was caught on camera near quarter-century ago when she held her 1-year-old on live television during a post-quake interview.

"My husband was had actually been home with the kids, I was responding to the 4.6," Jones said. "The magnitude-6.1 happened, he brought in the kids. He handed me the baby in the middle of the interview, and we just did it because who has a baby sitter on call at 10 o'clock at night?"

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