US: 4.7 magnitude earthquake rattles Los Angeles

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A 4.7 magnitude earthquake rattled the Los Angeles area Thursday morning, unleashing boulders onto a Malibu road, visibly shaking Santa Monica's 1909 wooden pier and jolting some people from bed. No injuries or damages were immediately reported. The US Geological Survey said the earthquake was centred 4 miles (7 km) north of Malibu and was about 7 miles (11 km) below the surface.

The jolt was felt as far as 45 miles (72 km) away in Orange County, where people reported items moving in their homes. It was followed by several smaller aftershocks. Officials around the region said authorities were surveying for damage, but had not found anything major.

The earthquake occurred closest to the Malibu fault, but was also near the Anacapa fault, according to California Institute of Technology seismologist Lucy Jones. Earthquakes below magnitude 5.0 are too small to be definitively associated with large faults that are mapped at the earth's surface.

'It's a garden-variety Southern California earthquake,' Jones said. A live camera at the 115-year-old Santa Monica Pier, about 12 miles (19 km) from Malibu, showed several seconds of intense shaking during the quake. Several morning newscasts also captured the earthquake live as cameras shook in television studios.

A crew was working on clearing large boulders that rolled onto Malibu Canyon Road, near the epicentre, KTLA-TV reported. Malibu Councilmember Bruce Silverstein said he has lived in the community for 13 years and this was the hardest quake yet, but nothing broke. 'Our house shook for about two or three seconds. I was concerned the windows were going to pop,' Silverstein said.

Rene Vasquez, manager at The Country Kitchen breakfast place in Malibu, said the shaking lasted a few seconds and kitchen staff ducked outside as a precaution. 'It wasn't that bad,' Vasquez said. 'Thank God nothing fell.' People, including several celebrities, took to social media to post they were awakened by a jolt.

Hotel heiress and media personality Paris Hilton wrote on X, 'That #Earthquake was scary.' Reality TV star Khloe Kardashian posted: 'Damn that was a big one.' Some residents said they were alerted by the state's earthquake early warning system. The quake happened as the region has been dealing with three major wildfires burning east of Los Angeles that torched dozens of homes and forced thousands to evacuate. The blazes erupted during a blistering heat wave that has just subsided.

A number of quakes have been felt in the area in recent months, including a 4.4 magnitude earthquake in August that rattled nerves from the Los Angeles area to San Diego, swaying buildings, knocking items off shelves and setting off car alarms. The temblor caused a pipe to burst at the ornate 1927 Pasadena City Hall building. In February, a magnitude 4.6 earthquake was felt in Malibu that occurred south of Thursday's earthquake.

Thursday's event was the 14th earthquake sequence of magnitude 4.0 in Southern California this year. While this is above the average of eight to 10 per year in the past few decades, it's too soon to tell whether the increased activity is statistically significant, said Jones, the Caltech seismologist. The previous highest number was 13 earthquakes of this size in 1988.

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