A brief earthquake took the Westside by surprise on Friday afternoon at about 1:47 p.m. According to the USGS Earthquake center, the 4.6 magnitude quake was centered in the Thousand Oaks area, just northwest of Malibu.
There have been several quakes of similar size this year. On Friday January 5, at 10:55 a.m. a magnitude 4.1 earthquake was reported by the U.S. Geological Survey with an epicenter three miles from San Bernardino at a depth of 5.6 miles.
And everyone trying to sleep off their New Year's hangovers were disturbed by a 4.1 magnitude shake at 8:27 a.m. with an epicenter about 11 miles southeast of Rancho Palos Verdes and 10 miles southwest of San Pedro.
January marked the 30th anniversary of the Northridge quake that devastated much of Los Angeles City on January 17, 1994. This magnitude 6.7 event produced extremely strong ground shaking, causing the greatest earthquake damage in the US since the 1906 San Francisco event and resulting in over 70 fatalities.
Lindsay Call, Chief Resilience Officer for the City of Santa Monica suggests downloading the MyShake app from the Apple App Store, ensuring your phone settings are adjusted to receive emergency alerts and even enrolling in the City of Santa Monica Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) training.
scott.snowden@smdp.com