A series of earthquakes rattled the Los Angeles area this morning, with the largest of the bunch coming in as a magnitude 4.2 event according to USGS. Shaking was felt in the region around Malibu, Whittier, Culver City, Chatsworth, and Torrance. There have been no reports of significant damage or injuries. The first earthquake struck at 2 am. The first earthquake’s epicenter was near the epicenter of the magnitude 5.2 event that struck during the Rose Bowl game in 1979.
The four earthquakes forced the Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD) to enter their “earthquake mode.” According to a statement released by LAFD, “a strategic survey of their districts examining all major areas of concern (transportation infrastructures, large places of assemblages, apartment buildings, power lines, etc.” for all 106 of the agency’s neighborhood stations. It took about 45 minutes for the LAFD to give the “all clear.”
The earthquakes, located off the Malibu coast about 15 miles southwest of Santa Monica, struck at 2 am, 2:03 am, 2:22 am, and 2:38 am. After the 4.2 magnitude event struck at 2 am, the subsequent 3.6, 2.9, and 2.8 magnitude events were likely to be aftershocks of the main event.
The earthquake wasn’t strong enough to generate a tsunami and no tsunami-related advisory was issued for California, the U.S. West Coast, or Hawaii.
