Magnitude-4.4 Earthquake Shakes SoCal Suburbs

A moderate earthquake shook an inland area of Southern California near San Bernardino on Tuesday night, giving a start to thousands across a heavily populated area, with more than one person comparing it to a rumbling big rig.

There were no immediate reports of damages or injuries, however.

The magnitude-4.4 quake hit in foothills northwest of San Bernardino about 5:38 p.m. at a depth of about three miles, a report from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) said. Aftershocks of magnitudes of 3.8 and 3.2 came minutes later, and dozens of tiny aftershocks followed in the next few hours.

People reported feeling the earthquake throughout the suburbs east of Los Angeles, which is about 50 miles southwest of the epicenter.

Police in the area said they had no reports of problems from the quake.

The quake came near the intersection of the San Jacinto, San Andreas and Cucamonga faults, three of the largest in Southern California, but it was too small to determine which fault was responsible, the USGS said.

There have been nine earthquakes above magnitude-4 in the general area in the last 10 years.

“There’s nothing particularly different about it that we can see at this point,” Lucy Jones, a USGS seismologist, told the KNBC channel.

Traditionally, earthquakes of this size are a monthly occurrence in Southern California, but “it’s been quieter for the last few years,” Jones said.

There is a 5 percent chance that the quake, or any quake, is a precursor of something bigger, Jones said.