4 Mild Quakes Felt but Cause No Damage

Four unrelated mild earthquakes were registered late Monday and Tuesday on the seismograph at Caltech in Pasadena.

A quake measuring 3.5 on the Richter scale struck near Newport Beach at 11:03 p.m. Monday, seismologists reported.

Caltech’s Nancy Durland said the epicenter of the quake was about three miles northeast of Newport Beach.

“What earthquake?” asked a dispatcher at the Orange County Fire Department.

A second temblor, measuring 3.7, struck at 3:13 a.m. about three miles north of the Big Bear ski resort, about 80 miles northeast of Los Angeles, Caltech spokesman Robert Finn said.

Experts were not sure what fault line was responsible for the tremor.

“It just felt like a sonic boom,” San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department dispatcher Dorie McDonough said. “It was really quick, although it knocked some people out of bed.”

At 8 p.m., another quake, centered about 45 miles east of Ensenada in Baja California, registered 4.5, Finn said.

Three minutes later, an aftershock to last week’s 6.3 and 6.1 temblors in the Superstition Hills of Imperial Valley hit 11 miles west of Westmorland. The quake registered 4.6, Finn said.

No damage or injuries were reported in any of the temblors, officials said.

Caltech seismologist Kate Hutton said the earthquakes were a common phenomenon for the Southland.

“We get a three-plus at least once a week somewhere in Southern California, maybe twice a week,” she said. “They were really very typical Southern California earthquakes.”