Small earthquake cluster hits near Big Bear Lake in San Bernardino County
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A series of small earthquakes hit near the Big Bear area in San Bernardino County starting late Saturday night into Sunday morning.
The earthquakes — which maxed out at magnitude 3.5 before sunrise Sunday — had an epicenter in the San Bernardino Mountains about four miles north of Big Bear Airport.
The epicenter was about 29 miles northeast of downtown San Bernardino, 27 miles southeast of Hesperia and 40 miles northwest of Palm Springs.
The first earthquake was magnitude 3.3, which struck at 11:15 p.m. Saturday, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
It was followed by a magnitude 3.4 at 2:51 a.m. The magnitude 3.5 temblor followed at 3:41 a.m.
An aftershock of magnitude 2.5 was reported at 5:54 a.m., followed by a magnitude 2.6 quake at 6:20 a.m.
“Weak” shaking — or a Level Three on the Modified Mercalli Intensity Scale — was felt in the Big Bear area, according to the USGS. In general, that’s enough to be felt quite noticeably by people indoors, but many people may not recognize it as an earthquake. The vibrations in such shaking may feel like a truck has passed by.
The last time the Big Bear area was hit by major earthquakes was in 1992. On June 28, 1992, a magnitude 6.3 earthquake hit about 4½ miles southeast of Big Bear Airport, causing severe shaking in the Big Bear area.
No lives were lost in the Big Bear earthquake of 1992, the USGS said, but there was substantial damage and landslides in the area, and that quake was widely felt around Southern California and in parts of southern Nevada and western Arizona.
The Big Bear earthquake of 1992 was the second of a one-two punch of temblors that occurred on the same day. Three hours earlier, and about 20 miles to the east, the powerful magnitude 7.3 Landers earthquake struck.
The Landers earthquake had an epicenter more than 25 miles northeast of Palm Springs, and resulted in severe shaking in Yucca Valley, and strong shaking in Twentynine Palms, according to the Modified Mercalli Intensity Scale.
A sleeping 3-year-old boy died after being struck by a collapsing chimney in the Landers earthquake.
Those earthquakes were preceded by a magnitude 6.1 earthquake on April 22, 1992, in Joshua Tree National Park. That quake began a sequence of triggered quakes that migrated north in the following months, culminating in the Landers and Big Bear earthquakes of June 1992.
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