Around 18 miles southwest of Bakersfield, a magnitude 5.2 earthquake was felt across a large part of Southern California on Tuesday night.
The U.S. Geological Survey says the earthquake happened at 9:09 p.m. and was first thought to be magnitude 5.3. Following it, at least a dozen aftershocks with magnitudes of 2.5 and up happened, some of which were 4.5 and 4.1 tremors.
The epicenter was in farmland with few people living in it. It was about 14 miles northwest of Grapevine, an unincorporated village in Kern County, 60 miles northwest of Santa Clarita, and 88 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles.
Residents said they felt like they were shaking for a long time. In Los Feliz, one person felt shaking for 45 seconds, with at least three different waves: a weak one, a strong one, and then another weak one. Two separate waves of shaking were felt for about 20 seconds in South Pasadena and Whittier.
There were no reports of damage right away. The office of Mayor Karen Bass said on social media that the Los Angeles Fire Department is doing a regular check to see if there is any damage.
The USGS said that people in the Los Angeles Basin, and also in Santa Maria, Bakersfield, and Fresno, felt the quake.
A lot of people in Southern California said they got alerts from the USGS’s earthquake early warning system, like on their Android phones or through the MyShake app.
One person said they got 30 to 45 seconds of warning before they felt the shaking start. One more person in East Anaheim said they had 30 seconds of warning before the shaking started.
It happened 14 miles from Arvin, 19 miles from Rosedale, and 22 miles from Oildale, California.
There have been no earthquakes of magnitude 3.0 or bigger in the area in the last 10 days.
A recent sample of data from the last three years shows that California and Nevada have an average of five earthquakes yearly with magnitudes of 5.0 to 6.0.
It took place 5.6 miles below the surface. Did this quake make you feel anything? You might want to tell the USGS what you felt.
Sign up for our Unshaken newsletter to learn what to do before and during an earthquake near you. The newsletter breaks down emergency preparations into small steps that you can do over six weeks.