According to the United States Geological Survey (USGS), millions of people were thrown into panic mode after a 4.4 magnitude earthquake struck several locations in Los Angeles on Monday afternoon, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS).
The New York Times reported that the earthquake struck around 12:20 p.m. local time and was centred in Pasadena, about five miles northeast of downtown Los Angeles.
An aftershock of 2.1 magnitude followed the earthquake, the USGS reported. One hundred miles away from Pasadena, the quake’s effects were felt in Bakersfield, San Diego and Joshua Tree National Park.
According to the USGS, the earthquake’s epicentre was in El Sereno, a small neighbourhood in northeast Los Angeles.
Meanwhile, no reports of major damages have been recorded.
The Los Angeles Fire Department and the California Highway Patrol said they had not received any reports of accidents or damage related to the quake.
“It was a pretty good jolt,” said Susan Hough, a seismologist with the USGS who was on the California Institute of Technology campus in Pasadena when the earthquake struck. “It was clearly a decent shake, though not huge.”
Scientists have yet to determine whether the earthquake was caused by the Puente Hills Fault, which runs through the Los Angeles basin into northern Orange County, but it appeared that the earthquake occurred close to the fault.
The fault line with the capacity to cause devastating earthquakes was discovered by scientists in 1999 and was responsible for the 1987 Whittier Narrows earthquake that killed eight people.
