Shaking Up SoCal: A Sunday Earthquake

Southern California experienced a magnitude 4. 1 earthquake on a Sunday afternoon. The epicenter was pinpointed in the Santa Monica Mountains, near Malibu. People in Malibu, Agoura Hills, Thousand Oaks, and Camarillo felt the strongest shaking. This quake was classified as "light" on the Modified Mercalli Intensity Scale. It was strong enough to make dishes rattle and windows shake, but not enough to cause any damage. The earthquake struck at 1:03 p. m. and was followed by several aftershocks. A magnitude 2. 5 aftershock hit just a minute later, with magnitude 3 and 2. 8 aftershocks following at 1:07 p. m. People across a wide area, from downtown Los Angeles to Ventura, felt the tremors. Descriptions varied from a brief sway to a long, slow roll. The quake was felt as far south as Goleta and as far north as Huntington Beach. In Westlake Village, people described a rolling sensation that lasted about five seconds. Residents in Reseda felt a steady shake, while those in Redondo Beach experienced a long rumble. Near Los Angeles International Airport, the earthquake felt like a brief sway.

This earthquake is part of a series of seismic activity in Southern California. Since 2024, the region has seen 15 seismic sequences with at least one magnitude 4 or higher earthquake. This is the highest annual total in the last 65 years. Sunday's quake was the first magnitude 4 earthquake for Southern California in 2025. Experts warn that these smaller quakes do not provide clues about when the next big one will hit. Seismologists have been studying earthquake patterns for decades. They hoped that smaller earthquakes would show patterns before larger ones. Unfortunately, this approach has not been successful. Scientists installed a seismic network in Southern California 100 years ago to monitor these patterns, but the data has not provided the clarity they hoped for.

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