Yet despite the earthquake’s intensity — a magnitude of 7.0, according to the U.S. Geological Survey — the shaking caused little damage because of its remote epicenter in the Pacific Ocean, 200 miles north of San Francisco Bay. The tsunami warnings were canceled about an hour after they were issued.

A 7.0-magnitude earthquake off the California coast briefly triggered a tsunami warning for parts of Northern California and southern Oregon, but the warning was canceled just before noon.

The rupture struck just southwest of the Cascadia subduction zone — the notorious offshore fault capable of generating 8.5 or 9.0 earthquakes, followed by massive tsunamis.

The quake occurred on the sparsely populated northern coast of California in a seismically complex area known as the Mendocino Triple Junction. It is where three tectonic plates meet and the Northwest’s Cascadia subduction zone and California’s San Andreas Fault system meet.

Residents in Humboldt County were relieved Friday to have avoided the worst potential impacts of Thursday's magnitude 7.0 quake, though there was still some damage to clean up.

A magnitude 7 earthquake struck along the San Andreas fault, triggered a now-discontinued tsunami warning from Oregon to San Francisco.

Aftershocks continued to rattle the North Coast Thursday night into Friday morning following the powerful 7.0 earthquake that prompted a tsunami warning across a large stretch of California.More than 120 aftershocks and quakes over magnitudes 2.