LOS ANGELES — As wildfires continue to rage in the mountains, producing an orange glow behind the downtown Los Angeles skyline, Southern California residents were awakened early Thursday by a reminder of nature’s power.
A 4.7 magnitude earthquake shook the Los Angeles area, dislodging boulders onto a road in Malibu, rattling Santa Monica’s historic wooden pier, and waking some individuals from their sleep. Fortunately, there were no immediate reports of injuries or damage.
The tremor struck while the region was grappling with three major wildfires burning east of Los Angeles that have destroyed dozens of homes and forced thousands to evacuate during a recently ended extreme heat wave.
“This is a typical Southern California earthquake,” said Lucy Jones, a seismologist with the California Institute of Technology.
According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the epicenter was located four miles north of Malibu and approximately seven miles underground. People as far away as 45 miles in Orange County felt the quake, reporting items moving around in their homes. Several smaller aftershocks followed.
Local officials reported that damage assessments were underway but had not revealed any significant issues.
Bruce Silverstein, a Malibu councilmember who has lived in the community for 13 years, described it as the strongest quake he had experienced, yet nothing was broken. “Our house shook for about two or three seconds. I was worried the windows might pop,” he said.
Footage from a camera at the Santa Monica Pier, located about 12 miles from Malibu, displayed several seconds of severe shaking. Morning newscasts captured live footage of the earthquake as studio cameras shook.
A crew was dispatched to clear large rocks that had fallen onto Malibu Canyon Road, close to the quake’s epicenter, as reported by KTLA-TV.
The earthquake was closest to the Malibu fault and near the Anacapa fault, according to Jones. Tremors below 5.0 in magnitude are usually considered too minor to be definitively linked to the larger faults visible on the surface.
Rene Vasquez, manager of The Country Kitchen in Malibu, reported the shaking lasted only a few seconds, with kitchen staff stepping outside as a precaution. “It wasn’t that bad,” he noted, adding, “Thank God nothing fell.”
At a local Starbucks, surfer Albert Daniel was sipping his coffee, concerned that the glass ceiling might collapse on him. Following the quake, he expressed hope for bigger waves. “It’s actually pretty calm,” Daniel remarked, noting the incoming sets were quite small.
Trudy Novicki, a visitor from San Clemente, felt the quake just as she was about to meditate on her hotel room balcony. “I thought a truck had run into the building,” she said. Her daughter, visiting from Florida, mistook the quake for a passing train.
Several residents and some celebrities shared their experiences on social media. Hotel heiress Paris Hilton tweeted about how frightening the earthquake was, while reality star Khloe Kardashian remarked, “Damn that was a big one.”
Many individuals received alerts from the state’s earthquake early warning system.
In recent months, the area has experienced several quakes, including a 4.4 magnitude earthquake in August that shook buildings and knocked items off shelves across Southern California. A significant incident in February involved a 4.6 magnitude quake that similarly affected Malibu.
Thursday’s quake marked the 14th occurrence of magnitude 4.0 or higher in Southern California this year, exceeding the average of eight to ten in recent decades. However, it’s too early to determine if this uptick in seismic activity is statistically significant. The previous record for such quakes was 13 in 1988.
The recent series of earthquakes does not predict a larger quake is imminent, but residents should prepare for potential aftershocks. There is a 1 in 20 chance that another earthquake of 4.7 magnitude or above could occur, according to U.S. Geological Survey geophysicist Morgan Page.