Early on Wednesday morning, an earthquake with a magnitude of 4.2 and several aftershocks occurred close to Malibu in the Los Angeles region.
The original 4.2-magnitude earthquake struck at 2 a.m. PST near offshore, 10 miles south of Malibu Beach, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The earthquake occurred at a depth of around 9.2 kilometers.
“My bed shook,” reported FOX Weather Correspondent Max Gorden, who is located in Ventura, “hard enough to have me spring out of it, literally, and go over to the living room.” When an earthquake occurs in the middle of the night, a part of you wonders if it was all a dream. So, I logged onto Twitter to confirm that it wasn’t just my imagination. Sure enough, several local LA journalists had posted that they had felt the earthquake.
A magnitude 3.5 aftershock was recorded in about the same location at a depth of 8 miles around three minutes after the first quake.
At 2:22 and 2:38 a.m. PST, respectively, there were aftershocks of magnitude 2.8 and 2.6.A slight tremor was detected as Gorden attempted to fall asleep once more.
Despite the earthquakes occurring near the Southern California shoreline, the National Weather Service reports no tsunami concern.
After the earthquake, the Los Angeles Fire Department went into “Earthquake Mode” for about 45 minutes, during which time all 106 fire stations carried out “a strategic 470 square-mile survey of the City of Los Angeles… examining all major areas of concern (transportation infrastructures, large places of assemblage, apartment buildings, power-lines, etc.).” No injuries or damage were reported, and business as usual has resumed.
There were no recent reports of damage or injuries at the Forecast Center either. Damage often doesn’t start until an earthquake’s magnitude rises over 4 or 5.