Los Angeles earthquake follows cluster of California temblors: 'Almost don't believe it'

A magnitude 4.4 earthquake rumbled underneath Los Angeles on Monday, less than a week after a bigger one jolted much of Southern California.

The U.S. Geological Survey placed the epicenter of Monday's quake near the Highland Park neighborhood in the city's northeast and three miles from Pasadena, California, site of the New Year's Day Rose Parade. The tremor, which struck about 12:20 p.m. PT, was felt as far north as Bakersfield, California, and further south in San Diego, both more than 100 miles from Los Angeles.

"No significant infra/structure damage or injuries have been noted within the city", the Los Angeles Fire Department said after conducting a survey.

Quakes between 2.5 and 5.4 often result in minor or no damage, though this one was particularly shallow at 7.5 miles of depth, contributing to more people feeling it.

"It rattled the glasses, the windows. Everybody was a little shook," said Luis Alcala, a bartender at the Congregation Brewery and Cocina in Pasadena.

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'You almost don't believe it'

The USGS rated the tremor's shaking as "weak'' in most of Southern California but "strong'' in some parts of Los Angeles and surrounding cities. Even some longtime Angelenos accustomed to the ground occasionally moving were startled out of complacency.

"You almost don't believe it," said Jason Reyes, a recent UCLA graduate spending the summer in Westwood. "It's like someone's shaking the ground and you're like, 'All right now, quit playing around.'"

The quake suddenly burst into the Travis & Sliwa show on ESPN Los Angeles, quickly becoming the topic of conversation right after the studio quivered while the hosts were on air. The Los Angeles Times reported the seventh floor of its building near the airport swayed and lights flickered and added that items fell from store shelves in other parts of the city and its surroundings.

The temblor hit on the first day of school for the Los Angeles Unified School District, which reported no damage to its facilities from the quake in an email to USA TODAY.

Temblor follows in tracks of quake clusters

Last Tuesday, a magnitude 5.2 earthquake and a swarm of aftershocks in farmland almost 90 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles didn't do much damage but did send the fire department's 106 stations into earthquake mode, triggering a land, sea and air survey.

More than 277 aftershocks to the Aug. 6 quake, the largest in Southern California in three years, included two with a magnitude of 4 or greater. Still, the likelihood of another, larger shock is still low, the U.S. Geological Survey said.

The swarm of earthquakes was on an unknown fault about 20 to 30 miles west of the San Andreas fault, in an area known for earthquakes.