Countywide : Mystery Movement Prompts Phone Calls

Residents in western Ventura County reported that they felt an earthquake Thursday morning, but officials monitoring seismic activity said the earth never moved.

The Caltech seismological laboratory was inundated with phone calls, mostly from reporters, asking about an earthquake between 9:30 and 9:45 a.m., said Hall Daily, director of public affairs. He said calls came from such diverse areas as Oxnard and Lancaster.

But Caltech registered no seismological activity in the area at that time, he said.

He said that effects similar to earthquakes may be produced by such things as sonic booms or artillery practice.

Spokesmen from the Port Hueneme Naval Construction Battalion Center and Point Mugu Pacific Missile Test Center, Vandenberg Air Force Base near Lompoc and Edwards Air Force Base in the Antelope Valley said they were not aware of any activity that could have prompted the calls.