Premise: LOS ANGELES (AP) — A report of a major earthquake off the California coast has turned out to be a false alarm based on a quake that happened in 1925. The US Geological Survey sent out an email alert Wednesday afternoon saying a magnitude 6.8 quake had struck in the Pacific Ocean 10 miles west of Santa Barbara. The report cause huge ripples on Twitter and in newsrooms across the country, but suspiciously no reports of anyone having felt the temblor. USGS geophysicist Rafael Abreu says researchers were working on the 1925 earthquake when the mistaken alert went out.
Hypothesis: The USGS sent out the alert about an earthquake off the coast of California.