A magnitude-4.2 earthquake shook a large swath of Southern California on Wednesday evening.
The earthquake, centered in San Bernardino, struck at 7:43 p.m. and resulted in mild shaking throughout the Inland Empire, together with in Riverside, Fontana, Rialto, Rancho Cucamonga, Moreno Valley and Redlands, in response to the U.S. Geological Survey.
Gentle shaking is outlined by the Modified Mercalli Depth Scale as feeling like a heavy truck struck a constructing.
Colton obtained a shaking, at a couple of mile from the quake’s epicenter. Police, nevertheless, had not “obtained a single name” for support as of about 9 p.m., Sgt. Mike Farcas advised The Instances. The San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Division and police in Rialto, positioned about two miles from the quake’s middle, echoed that assertion.
Weaker shaking was felt throughout the area, together with in Los Angeles, Lengthy Seaside and Orange County. Residents stated on social media shaking was felt in Ontario, Yorba Linda and downtown Los Angeles. A resident in Rowland Heights stated she felt three seconds of shaking, as if she have been on a ship with waves shifting quickly.
The epicenter was 1.5 miles southwest of downtown San Bernardino and half a mile north of the San Bernardino Depot practice station. The quake started simply east of the mapped traces of the San Jacinto fault, one of many area’s most lively and probably harmful fault traces.
The San Jacinto fault spans about 130 miles and runs from the Cajon Cross in San Bernardino County southeast towards the Mexican border. The San Jacinto fault is one which worries earthquake scientists as a result of it cuts into the center of the Inland Empire, by cities reminiscent of San Bernardino, Colton, Moreno Valley, Redlands, Loma Linda, Hemet and San Jacinto, in addition to close to Riverside, Rialto and Fontana.
The Inland Empire can be notably weak to earthquakes due to a scarcity of seismic retrofitting. A Instances investigation revealed in 2018 stated there have been tons of of outdated brick buildings in additional than a dozen cities within the Inland Empire, together with Riverside, Pomona and San Bernardino, which have been marked as harmful however remained unretrofitted regardless of a long time of warnings.
On social media, seismologist Lucy Jones stated the depth of Wednesday’s earthquake — greater than 9 miles — was “fairly deep.” The newest quake was about 15 miles southeast of 1 that shook the world on Jan. 5, when a magnitude-4.2 quake jolted near the distant neighborhood of Lytle Creek within the San Gabriel Mountains of San Bernardino County.
“The 2 quakes are in all probability on the identical fault, however they’re far sufficient aside in each time and house to not have an apparent correlation,” Jones wrote on social media.
Southern California’s first earthquake of a minimum of magnitude 4 this yr occurred on New 12 months’s Day, off the Los Angeles County coast. That magnitude-4.1 earthquake was centered about 10 miles southwest of San Pedro and 11 miles southeast of Rancho Palos Verdes.
A mean of 25 earthquakes with magnitudes of 4.0 to five.0 happen per yr in California and Nevada, in response to a current three-year knowledge pattern.
Did you are feeling this earthquake? Think about reporting what you felt to the USGS.
Discover out what to do earlier than, and through, an earthquake close to you by signing up for our Unshaken publication, which breaks down emergency preparedness into bite-sized steps over six weeks. Study extra about earthquake kits, which apps you want, Lucy Jones’ most necessary recommendation and extra at latimes.com/Unshaken.
An earlier model of this story was routinely generated by Quakebot, a pc utility that displays the newest earthquakes detected by the USGS. A Instances editor reviewed the publish earlier than it was revealed. In case you’re excited by studying extra in regards to the system, go to our listing of often requested questions.
