City of Los Angeles rattled by early-morning earthquake

Residents of Los Angeles suffered through a rather rude awakening this morning, as a shallow earthquake shook the city at just before sunrise.

The U.S. Geological Survey reports that the quake struck at 6:25 a.m. Pacific Time, with the epicentre located under the Santa Monica Mountains, just to the northwest of Los Angeles. It was initially recorded as magnitude 4.7, but was downgraded to magnitude 4.4 shortly after. That registers as only 'light' on the Richter scale of earthquake magnitude, which ranks earthquakes by the amount of energy they release. However, with the shallow depth this quake struck at, just over 8 kilometres below the surface, it's intensity was still felt strongly through the surrounding area.

According to CBS Los Angeles, the Los Angeles County Fire Department has been surveying the city from the ground and air, and have reported no earthquake-related damage or injuries.

Dr. Lucy Jones, of the U.S. Geological Survey, told CBS Los Angeles that this was the largest quake to strike the area since aftershocks from the 1994 Northridge earthquake died down.

A magnitude 2.7 aftershock was recorded roughly an hour after the initial quake, and Dr. Jones said that more aftershocks are likely throughout the day.

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Although southern California, and Los Angeles in particular, experience frequent tremors due to shifts in the San Andreas Fault, a few quakes definitely attract more attention than others, regardless of what their Richter-scale magnitude is. Just last month, a magnitude 2.9 earthquake struck West Hollywood, and although that strength of quake tends to slip by the notice of most people, its shallow depth and location right under a major population centre meant that most people in the area felt quite the jolt from it.

Just one week ago, further up the coast, a magnitude 6.9 quake struck near Eureka, California, which was felt up and down the west coast, from south of Los Angeles to Vancouver Island. Fortunately, this powerful earthquake dumped most of its energy into the Juan de Fuca tectonic plate, and caused little to no damage on land.

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