In strongest in two decades, an earthquake measuring 7.1 jolted Southern California on Friday, damaging buildings and cracking roads.

News agency Reuters, quoted U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) that the quake struck at around 8:20 p.m. local time (0320 GMT) near the town of Ridgecrest in Death Valley National Park, which is around 125 miles (202 km) northeast of Los Angeles.

The report also stated that a California Institute of Technology (CalTech) seismologist said, "Friday's quake was the most powerful to hit the region since another 7.1 temblor in the same area in 1999."

However, it has not caused much harm to the people and only a few injuries.

The USGS said Friday's earthquake was about 11 times more forceful than Thursday's tremor, which geologists described as a foreshock to the larger one.

It may be noted that there was a 6.4 richter scale quake which rattled the area a day earlier on Thursday. There were many aftershocks of which the 7.1 was the strongest.