5.0 Malibu Quake Rocks a Wide Area

A magnitude 5 earthquake, centered about eight miles south of Malibu, rocked a broad area of Southern California late Wednesday, shaking downtown Los Angeles office buildings, shifting beams in at least one Westside home, knocking kitchenware from cabinets and causing rockslides in Malibu.

The temblor was felt from Santa Barbara to San Diego and as far east as San Bernardino. Seismologists at Caltech in Pasadena said the epicenter was in the same general area of a magnitude 4.6 quake that hit on New Year’s Day in 1979 during the Rose Bowl game.

A 5.2 quake in the same vicinity hit in 1930, Caltech scientists said.

The Los Angeles Civic Center was hit with a rolling motion at 10:53 p.m., and the quake was felt for up to 30 seconds. In Topanga Canyon, the temblor was felt as two “very sharp jolts,” and diners at a Brentwood restaurant said china tumbled to the floor.

Early Reports

Officials of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s and Fire departments cited no early reports of serious damage or injuries.

“It seemed to last about 10 seconds, but it was the most noisy and violent 10 seconds,” said Rick Cziment of Venice. “All the dishes were shaking, and the birds were banging into the bars of their cage.

“It’s the strongest earthquake I’ve felt in 14 years of living in Los Angeles. It actually scared me. Our house went dark. My daughter woke up and began crying.”

The quake knocked out electrical power to more than 90,000 customers in the San Fernando Valley and West Los Angeles for a few minutes.

Los Angeles police helicopters checked 30 main points where heavy damage could occur, such as dams, and found no evidence of any damage, officials said.

Southern California Edison Co. and Los Angeles Department of Water and Power officials said there were no reports of major damage.

John Hazard, a box boy at a Vons supermarket on Ventura Boulevard in Woodland Hills said, “It felt like a swaying. Everybody ran for cover outside because everything was falling on the floor. One aisle was a mess.”

Don Desmarteau, manager of Solley’s, a Woodland Hills delicatessen, said that “everybody jumped out of their booths and seats” once the shaking began.

About 25 customers were in the restaurant when the quake hit.

Ron Erickson, a bartender at Alice’s Restaurant in Malibu, said that more than “100 bottles fell, and I was ankle deep in broken glass.” He added that no one was hurt, but that the Malibu Pier was “swaying all over.”

He called it the worst quake he had ever felt in the Malibu area.

Eight aftershocks above magnitude 2 were felt in the Santa Monica Bay area south of Malibu in the first hour after the quake.

Seismologists said they had yet to identify the fault associated with Wednesday’s quake, but the 1930 and the 1979 quakes were on what is known as the Elysian Park Fault, which underlies downtown Los Angeles.

Times Staff Writers Kevin Baxter, David Dorion, Judy Dugan, Gabriel Fuentes, Paul Feldman, Nieson Himmel, Robert Stewart, Boris Yaro and Jeff Yip contributed to this article.