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| Los Angeles Earthquake, 4.7 Magnitude Southern California |
Los Angeles Earthquake, 4.7 Magnitude Southern California
The 9:55 a.m. quake had an estimated magnitude of 4.7, said Nick Scheckel, seismic analyst at the California Institute of Technology's seismological laboratory in Pasadena.
The epicenter was about a dozen miles from the Riverside County desert community of Anza, about 100 miles southeast of Los Angeles, and it was felt strongly at the BNP Paribas Open tennis tournament happening in nearby Indian Wells.
Monday morning's magnitude 4.7 earthquake in Riverside County was the largest temblor to hit the Los Angeles region in three years and has produced more than 100 aftershocks.
It caused no major damage, but it was felt over what seismologists said was an unusually large area.
There was no damage at the store, and authorities said there were no reports of damage or injuries in the region. Quakes of that magnitude are unlikely to do much harm to modern buildings, said Lucy Jones, a seismologist with the U.S. Geological Survey in Pasadena.
Lawson, who lives in Anza, got a call from her teenage son soon after, reporting that there had been a sudden, loud crack of sound before the shaking began. Their home, a manufactured house, experienced small cracks after a similar earthquake about a year ago.
Meanwhile, campers in nearby RVs came one by one to ask if there had been an earthquake “or if they were just going crazy,” Lawson said.
Mary Ann McKennon, a volunteer camp host and Idaho native, said she didn't know what was going on at first.
“My first thought was that we've been having some funky winds, and sometimes they blow pretty hard,” she said. Soon she saw the truck outside rocking, too.
“I didn't like it at all,” said McKennon, who has worked on and off at the camp for six years. “Do you ever get used to them?”
