3.9 Earthquake Off Oceanside Rattles County’s Coastal Cities

An earthquake that jostled Orange County coastal communities Wednesday measured 3.9 on the Richter scale and was one of “hundreds” of aftershocks centered off Oceanside since a large earthquake shook the area last July, officials at the Caltech Seismology Laboratory in Pasadena said.

The 1:13 p.m. aftershock, centered 28 miles southwest of Oceanside, was too small to cause damage, and police in Oceanside and Encinitas said they had no reports of problems.

A larger aftershock registering 4.2 struck the same area Tuesday, Caltech seismic analyst Steve Bryant said.

Bryant said temblors of such magnitude may rattle loose objects but often are not felt. He said that Wednesday’s quake was routine and that large quakes are invariably followed by a long series of aftershocks. “We’ve had thousands of aftershocks since Palm Springs,” he said of the 5.9 earthquake that rocked much of the Southland in early July.

The July 13 earthquake off Oceanside measured 5.3 and caused an estimated $720,000 damage.

Steve Danon of the San Diego County Office of Disaster Preparedness said everything was “quite routine” Wednesday. He said the aftershocks probably will continue for several months as the earth settles at the fault line.