Los Angeles Area Rattled by 4.4-Magnitude Earthquake

According to the USGS, a 4.4-magnitude earthquake struck just to the northwest of downtown Los Angeles at around 6:30 a.m. PDT Monday. The predawn quake rattled nerves and shook buildings along a 150-mile swath of Southern California from Santa Barbara to Orange County in the greater Los Angeles area but caused no major damage.

The quake's epicenter was located six miles to the north-northwest of Westwood, Calif. and around 15 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles, at a depth of 5.3 miles.

A 2.7-magnitude earthquake followed the initial rumble just under an hour later, at 7:23 a.m. PDT, the USGS reported.

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USGS

This USGS ShakeMap shows the intensity of the shakes from the earthquake that struck to the northwest of Los Angeles.

Though southern California is no stranger to earthquakes, the quake's location in the Santa Monica Mountains is unusual because it was the only magnitude-4.4 temblor within the range since recording of earthquakes began, according to seismologist Egill Hauksson. 

"The Santa Monica Mountains are a very old rock formation, hundreds of millions of years old, and we sort of think of it as being a very rigid block," Hauksson told the Associated Press. "And the earthquakes tend to cluster either north of them or south of them but don't seem to be occurring within the mountains." 

The earthquake caused no damage, reports the Los Angeles Times.

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The temblor was one of the largest quakes to hit Los Angeles since the 6.7-magnitude Northridge quake killed several dozen and caused $25 billion in damage two decades ago, Dr. Lucy Jones, a USGS seismologist, told KABC-TV.