A 3.3 earthquake struck the Fontana area Thursday morning, but there were no reports of damage or injuries.Dozens of residents in Fontana, Rialto, Rancho Cucamonga San Bernardino and surrounding cities told the U.S. Geological Survey they had felt the quake, which struck at 5:14 a.m.
The quake was centered about three miles north of Fontana and four miles west of Rialto (that’s about 46 miles east of downtown Los Angeles).The USGS did not say which fault they believed the quake was linked to.
A magnitude 3.7 earthquake occurred in the Santa Monica Bay on Monday afternoon, the second temblor to hit the area so far today.The latest one hit about four miles off the coast of Hermosa Beach about 5 p.m. This morning, another quake struck off Santa Monica Bay. More than 1,000 people reported feeling that temblor, a magnitude 3.6 that was most pronounced in the Westside and South Bay areas.
No damage or injuries were reported from those quakes, nor from several smaller ones that occurred in the same general region.Residents across Santa Monica, the Westside, Culver City and South Bay beach cities reported feeling the latest quake, according to the U.S. Geological Survey’s Did You Feel It? system.
[Updated at 5:23 p.m.: Another Santa Monica Bay temblor has been reported. This was was magnitude 2.9 and occurred north of the Palos Verdes Peninsula.]Also, two apparently unrelated quakes hit Big Bear this afternoon.
WASHINGTON, April 30 A magnitude 5.0 earthquake struck northern California’s Napa region on Friday, the U.S. Geological Survey said.The quake hit 7 miles/11 km northeast of Napa at a depth of 3 miles (5 km). The temblor could not be felt in San Francisco, a witness said.(Reuters)
earthquake sent a sharp jolt across the Los Angeles area Tuesday, but the magnitude 4.4 temblor was barely strong enough to knock items off shelves. It was, however, sharp enough to frazzle residents, many of whom felt a “strong bang.” The epicenter was 10 miles southeast of downtown Los Angeles in Pico Rivera, and the quake was felt as far away as San Diego and Ventura County. Los Angeles County fire official Ed Pickett, who was in East Los Angeles, said the jolt at 4:04 a.m. felt “like the building dropped.” He described feeling the quake for about “15 seconds at the most.”
But at the epicenter, there appeared to be no major damage. Not a single bottle broke at Walt’s Liquor Store in Pico Rivera, said owner Letti Talamantes.Jose Palomera, who was cleaning a taco stand in Pico Rivera, first thought the shaking was a rolling big rig. “It just felt like a big wave just passing by,” he said. Pico Rivera soon returned to normal. Buses picked up passengers, cars waited in drive-through lines and customers watched the morning news while buying doughnuts and coffee.The quake was weaker than the magnitude 5.4 Chino Hills quake in July 2008 and the 4.7 May 2009 Inglewood quake, which shattered windows and caused minor damage.
Caltech seismologist Egill Hauksson said Tuesday’s quake appears to have occurred along the 25-mile-long Puente Hills thrust fault, which runs from the Puente Hills near Whittier northwest through downtown Los Angeles, ending in Beverly Hills. The quake was triggered when one side of the fault slid over the other, causing shaking.The Puente Hills thrust fault is the same one that triggered the magnitude 5.9 Whittier Narrows earthquake in 1987 that killed eight people and caused $358 million in damage. Tuesday’s quake produced about 500 times less energy than the 1987 temblor.
The Puente Hills thrust is a slow-moving fault and is less likely to have major earthquakes than, say, the San Andreas fault. But major temblors can happen on slow-moving faults, Hauksson said, which is what happened in the 7.9 quake that struck China in 2008, killing about 70,000 people.Earthquakes with a magnitude of 4 are quite common in Southern California, occurring every month or two, said Caltech seismologist Kate Hutton.The last magnitude 4 quake occurred Saturday in northern San Diego County.Tuesday’s quake was a reminder of the tectonic forces that have been shaping the region for 3 million to 4 million years. The quakes are triggered as the Pacific plate moves northwest, shifting against the North American plate.
Santosamaru 