Two small earthquakes have hit near Ontario, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Southland residents, who are among the Los Angelenos feeling the immense heat wave, also dealt with some minor shaking Saturday morning.
The first quake to strike the area — later deemed a foreshock — was at 10:05 a.m., centered 4.3 miles southeast of Ontario, per the survey. It was a magnitude 3.5. That was later followed by a 3.9 earthquake at 10:34 a.m., with its center about 4.4 miles southeast of Ontario and 4.7 miles northwest of Jurupa Valley in Riverside County.
Roughly an hour later, at 11:45 a.m., a 2.6 magnitude aftershock struck about two miles southeast of Ontario, according to ABC 7.
No damage has been reported. However, as per usual, locals flooded social media with reaction posts and information. Known collectively as “Earthquake Twitter” on X, users often flock to share memes or video evidence of the quake.
@QuakesInCA, which is based on USGS data, noted several aftershocks that followed from the tremors this morning. A majority of them, within five miles of Ontario, were magnitudes of 2.0.
Dr. Lucy Jones, a prominent seismologist and guest of John Mulaney Presents: Everybody’s In LA Emmy-submitted earthquake episode, wrote on X, “Today we are having a small swarm in the Fontana Seismicity Lineation, a northeast-striking line of many small quakes. Today we have so far M3.9, M3.5 and many M1s and M2s. I’ve seen this type [sic] of cluster in Fontana dozens of times in my decades watching SoCal quakes.”
While Los Angeles has recently seen a swarm of quakes this summer, Jones discredited the popularly believed “earthquake weather” myth. “Today’s quakes are one of many this year — most of which happened when it wasn’t hot,” she said.