By
The Associated Press
BIG BEAR LAKE, Calif. - A magnitude 5.1 earthquake rattled a wide swath of Southern California Saturday afternoon. No major damage or injuries were reported.
The quake struck at 1:05 p.m. and was centered four miles northwest of this San Bernardino County ski resort, according to Joe Franck, a seismologist at California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.
The quake was felt as far away as downtown Los Angeles, about 90 miles west, and San Diego, 100 miles south.
"It was a good rolling earthquake," said David Delay, a Big Bear City fire engineer. "Everybody was doing the typical duck and roll."
"I heard the ground moan. I had never heard it so loud. The condos swayed, and the cars bounced back and forth on their tires," furniture store owner Deanna Pacuilli said.
Damages were slight.
"We lost a couple things upstairs, mostly glassware," said Susan Botenhagen, owner of Big Bear Mercantile.
"I was in the bathroom cleaning, and I fell on my knees. No damages except (to) myself," said Arshak Ebrahimi, who works at the Big Bear Lodge. "Everybody ran out of the cabins."
More than two dozen aftershocks hit throughout the afternoon. The largest was a magnitude 4.2, Franck said. The area sees frequent seismic activity because it is just 15 miles north of a bend in the San Andreas Fault.
The temblor was not connected to a magnitude 3.9 earthquake that rattled the desert southeast of Los Angeles about three hours earlier, Franck said.
No damage or injuries were reported as a result of that temblor, which occurred at 9:50 a.m. and was centered 9 miles northeast of Indio, about 130 miles southeast of Los Angeles.
