LOS ANGELES — An earthquake with a magnitude of 4.2 was broadly felt in the nation’s second largest city on Friday and shook items off shelves near the focal point in a small mountain community to the east of Los Angeles, but there were no major reports of damage or injuries.
The U.S. Geological Survey indicated that the quake occurred at 10:55 a.m. and was located about a mile (1 kilometer) northwest of Lytle Creek, in the San Gabriel Mountains about 45 miles (70 kilometers) east of downtown Los Angeles. The depth was estimated to be 5.5 miles (8.8 kilometers).
It happened less than a week after a similar earthquake with a magnitude of 4.1 also impacted the Los Angeles area and was noticed by individuals watching the Rose Parade in Pasadena on New Year’s Day.
Michael Guardado, an employee at the front desk of the Lytle Creek Ranger Station of the San Bernardino National Forest, mentioned that after Friday’s quake the “building shook hard” and he had heard that “a lot of rocks” had fallen onto Lytle Creek Road.
Cari Torguson, a bartender at Melody’s Place in Lytle Creek, mentioned she experienced “a hard boom and a shake.”
“It wasn’t very long, but it was scary,” she mentioned to The Associated Press.
A decorative glass mushroom above the bar fell and broke, and a jar of instant coffee toppled off a shelf in the adjoining store, she said. Only a handful of people were inside the building.
The earthquake was centered within miles of the home of minor league baseball’s Rancho Cucamonga Quakes. “What’s in a name, you say,” the team quipped on social media.
The tremor was felt as a slight rocking in downtown Los Angeles. Shaking was also reported in several surrounding counties and cities including Long Beach, more than 50 miles (80 kilometers) southwest of Lytle Creek.
The earthquake occurred in Cajon Pass, where the San Andreas and San Jacinto faults intersect, veteran seismologist Lucy Jones mentioned in a social media post. In 1970 there was a magnitude 5.2 earthquake with a 4.0 foreshock close to the same location, she said.
