Residents trying to sleep off their New Year's Eve celebrations were rudely awakened Monday by a small earthquake. The tremor measured about 4.1 according to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and occurred at 8:27 a.m Pacific Time.
The epicenter was about 11 miles southeast of Rancho Palos Verdes, 10 miles southwest of San Pedro, 16 miles northwest of Avalon on Santa Catalina Island and 16 miles southwest of downtown Long Beach.
According to earthquake sensing instruments, together with residents reporting the shaking on both social media and USGS's Did You Feel It? website, the tremor was felt all along the Los Angeles and Orange counties’ coast line. There did not appear to be any after shocks.
An average of five earthquakes with magnitudes between 4.0 and 5.0 occur every year in the greater Los Angeles metropolitan area, according to a recent three-year data sample cited by the Los Angeles Times.
And this tremor was totally unrelated to the significantly larger quake that struck western Japan, beneath the Noto Peninsula, at approximately 4 p.m. local time today. Residents in coastal areas were told to evacuate for fear of a subsequent tsunami.
The Japanese Meteorological Agency reported more than a dozen quakes in the Sea of Japan not far from the coast of Ishikawa, the largest of which was a magnitude 7.6 that caused considerable damage and knocked out electricity for 30,000 homes. The ground moved up to 10 feet and was a result of deformation causing reverse thrusting between the Amur and Okhotsk tectonic plates.
scott.snowden@smdp.com