Southern California was rattled Thursday by a magnitude 5.3 earthquake that struck near the Channel Islands.

The quake was the strongest in Southern California in several years, jangling some nerves but causing no major damage because it occurred offshore in the Pacific Ocean and not on land.

The quake did cause some minor landslides and earth movement on Santa Cruz Island, which was close to the epicenter, and rattled a bald eagle whose livestreamed reaction to the temblor went viral.

“A 5.3 could be damaging if it was right under our feet,” said John Vidale, director of the Southern California Earthquake Center at USC. “It’s right on the edge of being an earthquake that could be dangerous. It’s a reminder that we need to be ready in the future.”

Advertisement

The temblor occurred just before 12:30 p.m. and was centered south of Santa Cruz Island, about 90 miles west of downtown Los Angeles. It was felt as far away as Bakersfield, Palmdale and the city of Orange, according to witnesses and the U.S. Geological Survey.

Earthquake early-warning system gave heads-up before 5.3 magnitude temblor hit L.A. area »

The L.A. area feels an earthquake of this magnitude on average about once a year, Vidale said.

There is a 1-in-20 chance that Thursday’s quake will lead to a larger one in the next few weeks, he said. But, more than likely, smaller aftershocks that may not even be felt will follow, he said.

Advertisement

The quake was too small and too far away from the coast to trigger any tsunami concerns.

“It would never make a wave that you could see,” Vidale said.

(Los Angeles Times )

But it was large enough to activate the state’s developing earthquake early-warning system.

Vidale said he and colleagues at USC heard beeping 10 to 15 seconds before the quake’s shaking reached their campus.

“We all felt it pretty well. It was small and distinct,” he said. “We heard the warning go off and then we heard the shaking.”

The early-warning system is under development by the USGS and is available only to a limited array of testers, but it is expected that more people will be eligible to test the system later this year.

It works on a simple principle: The shaking from an earthquake travels at the speed of sound through rock — which is slower than the speed of today’s communications systems.

Advertisement

For example, it would take more than a minute for a magnitude 7.8 earthquake that starts at the Salton Sea and travels up the state’s longest fault, the San Andreas, to shake Los Angeles, 150 miles away. An early-warning system would give L.A. residents crucial seconds, and perhaps even more than a minute, to prepare.

It got a significant boost in the federal budget signed into law in March, defying an earlier proposal by President Trump to end federal funding for the program.

As part of the $1.3-trillion budget bill approved by Congress and signed by Trump, officials approved $22.9 million for the project. That more than doubles the $10.2 million it got in the previous year’s budget.

The USGS has said it planned to begin issuing limited public alerts from the system by the end of this year, as long as funding wasn’t cut. Southern California is one area where the network of seismic sensors is dense enough at present to begin early warnings.

That was the first earthquake I’ve felt since I got access to the @EarlyWarningLab beta app. I had 34 seconds warning—enough time to drop, cover, and hold on, which I would have done if I knew shaking was going to be strong. pic.twitter.com/Bx4Sn2imUW — Alissa Walker (@awalkerinLA) April 5, 2018

Earthquake that rattled L.A. area was strongest in years »

The temblor was located near the East Santa Cruz Basin fault zone, said Caltech seismologist Egill Hauksson, and seismologist Lucy Jones said on Twitter that the fault system “moves Southern California around a bend of the San Andreas fault.”

“Earthquakes happen out there now and again. There’s a major offshore fault system,” Hauksson said.

Advertisement

When asked why some people felt the earthquake but others nearby didn’t, Hauksson said where a person is matters a lot. “People in high rises probably felt it pretty well,” he said. People on softer soils might also feel stronger shaking.

Among those creatures startled by the quake were the feathered inhabitants of a bald eagle’s nest high above Santa Cruz Island.

A National Park Service live web camera trained on the nest shows a parent eagle and three chicks as their tree begins shaking. The parent flies off as the chicks look around bewildered. The parent eagle returns moments later, after the shaking.

WATCH: Eagle and chicks on Santa Cruz Island react to 5.3 Channel Islands earthquake https://t.co/Tm7D67mSgP pic.twitter.com/AwvVf6823b — CBS Los Angeles (@CBSLA) April 5, 2018

One of the last quakes to be felt this widely in the L.A. area was a magnitude 4.4 in Encino in 2014. That quake also shook a wide area and was the largest in the Los Angeles area in four years. It was noted by seismologists as the strongest to hit directly under the Santa Monica Mountains in 80 years.

Another widely felt earthquake came later that same month, a magnitude 5.1 centered in La Habra. Residents close to the epicenter reported toppled furniture, broken glass and fallen pictures; several water mains broke, a rock slide caused a car to overturn, and more than a dozen homes and apartments were declared uninhabitable because of possible structural damage.

The last time an area earthquake produced more energy than Thursday’s temblor was in 2012, when a magnitude 5.4 earthquake struck the border town of Brawley in Imperial County. Local officials reported 20 mobile homes shifted from their foundations and cosmetic damage to downtown buildings.

The epicenter of Thursday’s quake was south of the Channel Islands. A magnitude 4.8 quake in the same area rattled the region in 2013, but that epicenter was much closer to the coast, three miles away from Isla Vista, and produced moderate shaking enough to knock down a few photo frames.

A park service spokeswoman told KEYT that Thursday’s quake sent some bricks toppling off a chimney from a historic ranch property built in the 1860s on one of the islands.

The Santa Barbara area is home to a number of earthquake faults, the largest of which is the Santa Ynez fault, which is 80 miles long and runs just north of the city. That fault is believed to be capable of triggering an earthquake as powerful as magnitude 7.5.

Get ready for a major quake. What to do before — and during — a big one »

The great Santa Barbara quake of 1925, recorded at a magnitude 6.8, destroyed much of the city’s downtown on State Street, damaged rail lines, caused extensive landslides and was felt as far away as Orange County. It killed 13 people.

Since the magnitude 7.2 Easter Sunday earthquake of 2010 that hit along the California-Mexico border, there have been 14 earthquakes of magnitude 5 or greater in Southern California. Hauksson estimated that perhaps about half of them were felt in Los Angeles.

Seismologist Lucy Jones said she received a complaint Thursday about her calling earthquake activity like this normal. Some people on Twitter asked her what the larger meaning was behind the earthquake. But there isn’t any larger meaning nor a clue of when the next big earthquake will come or where it will hit, she said.

“There’s a human need for creating patterns,” Jones said. “It doesn’t make us safer or less safe. It’s a reminder of our reality.”

Earthquake activity in the Channel Islands shouldn’t be all that surprising. After all, earthquakes created the Channel Islands.

In fact, mountains throughout California are generally creations of earthquakes, Jones said.

Earthquakes pushed up the Santa Ynez Mountains in Santa Barbara and Ventura counties. The Santa Monica and Hollywood faults were responsible for creating the Santa Monica Mountains. The Sierra Madre fault is pushing up the San Gabriels. The Chino Hills were thrust upward by the Chino Hills fault.

“If you see mountains in California, that means something is moving up those mountains faster than erosion is wearing them down,” Jones said in an interview. “Basically, when you see mountains, think earthquakes in California.”

Staff writer James Queally contributed to this report.

joseph.serna@latimes.com

Twitter: @JosephSerna

ron.lin@latimes.com

Twitter: @ronlin

UPDATES:

12:05 p.m., April 6: This article was updated to include another recent earthquake widely felt in L.A. in recent years, the magnitude 5.1 earthquake centered in La Habra.

6:10 p.m.: This article was updated with additional information about the early-warning system and seismic history.

3:50 p.m.: This article was updated with reports of a damaged chimney on a historic property near the quake epicenter.

3:15 p.m.: This article was updated with details on a bald eagle nest on Santa Cruz Island.

2:20 p.m.: This article was updated with reports that there was no damage in Los Angeles.

1:45 p.m.: This article was updated with comments from seismologists and the Los Angeles Fire Department.

1:05 p.m.: This article was updated with comments from John Vidale, director of the Southern California Earthquake Center, and information on past Southern California earthquakes.

12:50 p.m.: This article was updated with a comment from the Los Angeles Police Department.

12:40 p.m.: This article was updated with an upgrade to the quake’s magnitude and comments from the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office.

This article was originally published at 12:35 p.m. on April 5, 2018.</s>A magnitude 5.3 earthquake was reported south of Santa Cruz Island on Thursday at about 12:30 p.m., according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The epicenter was about 40 miles directly south of Santa Barbara. The shake could be felt as far as Huntington Beach. No damages were immediately reported.

Just after 3:00 a.m. on Tuesday, a 2.7-magnitude earthquake was reported three miles off the coast at Point Conception.</s>Sign up for one of our email newsletters.

LOS ANGELES — Southern California was rattled Thursday by a magnitude 5.3 earthquake that struck near the Channel Islands.

The quake was the strongest in Southern California in several years, jangling some nerves but causing no major damage because it occurred offshore in the Pacific Ocean and not on land.

The quake did cause minor landslides and earth movement on Santa Cruz Island, which was close to the epicenter, and rattled the nerves of a bald eagle whose livestreamed reaction to the temblor went viral.

“A 5.3 could be damaging if it was right under our feet,” said John Vidale, director of the Southern California Earthquake Center at the University of Southern California. “It's right on the edge of being an earthquake that could be dangerous. It's a reminder that we need to be ready in the future.”

The temblor occurred just before 12:30 p.m. and was centered south of Santa Cruz Island. It was felt as far away as Bakersfield, Palmdale and the city of Orange, according to witnesses and the U.S. Geological Survey.

The L.A. area feels an earthquake of this magnitude on average about once a year, Vidale said.

There is a 1-in-20 chance that Thursday's quake will lead to a larger one in the next few weeks, he said. But, more than likely, smaller aftershocks that may not even be felt will follow, he said.

The quake was too small and too far away from the coast to trigger any tsunami concerns.

“It would never make a wave that you could see,” Vidale said.

But it was large enough to activate the state's developing earthquake early-warning system.

Vidale said he and colleagues at USC heard beeping 10 to 15 seconds before the quake's shaking reached their campus.

“We all felt it pretty well. It was small and distinct,” he said. “We heard the warning go off, and then we heard the shaking.”

The early-warning system is under development by the USGS and is available only to a limited array of testers, but it is expected that more people will be eligible to test the system later this year.

It works on a simple principle: The shaking from an earthquake travels at the speed of sound through rock — which is slower than the speed of today's communications systems.

For example, it would take more than a minute for a magnitude 7.8 earthquake that starts at the Salton Sea and travels up the state's longest fault, the San Andreas, to shake Los Angeles, 150 miles away. An early-warning system would give L.A. residents crucial seconds, and perhaps even more than a minute, to prepare.

It got a significant boost in the federal budget signed into law in March, defying an earlier proposal by President Trump to end federal funding for the program.

As part of the $1.3-trillion budget bill approved by Congress and signed by Trump, officials approved $22.9 million for the project. That more than doubles the $10.2 million it got in the previous year's budget.

The USGS has said it planned to begin issuing limited public alerts from the system by the end of this year, as long as funding wasn't cut. Southern California is one area where the network of seismic sensors is dense enough at present to begin early warnings.

The temblor was located near the East Santa Cruz Basin fault zone, said California Institute of Technology seismologist Egill Hauksson, and seismologist Lucy Jones said on Twitter that the fault system “moves Southern California around a bend of the San Andreas fault.”

“Earthquakes happen out there now and again. There's a major offshore fault system,” Hauksson said.

When asked why some people felt the earthquake but others nearby didn't, Hauksson said where a person is matters a lot. “People in high rises probably felt it pretty well,” he said. People on softer soils might also feel stronger shaking.

The epicenter of Thursday's quake was south of the Channel Islands. A magnitude 4.8 quake in the same area rattled the region in 2013, but that epicenter was much closer to the coast, three miles away from Isla Vista, and produced moderate shaking, enough to knock down a few photo frames.

A park service spokeswoman told KEYT that Thursday's quake sent some bricks toppling off a chimney from a historic ranch property built in the 1860s on one of the islands.

The Santa Barbara area is home to a number of earthquake faults, the largest of which is the Santa Ynez fault, which is 80 miles long and runs just north of the city. That fault is believed to be capable of triggering an earthquake as powerful as magnitude 7.5.

The great Santa Barbara quake of 1925, recorded at a magnitude 6.8, destroyed much of the city's downtown on State Street, damaged rail lines, caused extensive landslides and was felt as far away as Orange County. It killed 13 people.

Since the Easter Sunday earthquake of 2010 that hit along the California-Mexico border, there have been 14 earthquakes of magnitude 5 or greater in Southern California. Hauksson estimated that perhaps about half of them were felt in Los Angeles.

Seismologist Jones said she received a complaint Thursday about her calling earthquake activity like this normal. Some people on Twitter asked her what the larger meaning was behind the earthquake. But there isn't any larger meaning nor a clue of when the next big earthquake will come or where it will hit, she said.

“There's a human need for creating patterns,” Jones said. “It doesn't make us safer or less safe. It's a reminder of our reality.”</s>The Latest on an earthquake that occurred in the Channel Islands region off Southern California (all times local):

No significant damage has been reported after a magnitude 5.3 earthquake in the Channel Islands region off the Southern California coast, but some bricks fell from a chimney at a historic ranch on one of the islands.

Channel Islands National Park spokeswoman Yvonne Menard says the bricks fell Thursday at a ranch building on Santa Cruz Island that dates to the 1860s.

Menard says the 12:29 p.m. quake was felt by visitors and staff on the island, but no injuries were reported.

Most of Santa Cruz, including the ranch area, is owned by The Nature Conservancy, which cooperatively manages the island with the Park Service.

Veteran seismologist Lucy Jones says earthquakes of such size typically occur about once a year in Southern California.

An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 5.3 has struck off the coast of Southern California.

The U.S. Geological Survey says the quake occurred at 12:29 p.m. in the Channel Islands region, about 38 miles (61 kilometers) southwest of the mainland city of Ventura.

There are no immediate reports of damage.</s>April 5 (UPI) -- Emergency officials reported no serious damage or injuries Thursday when a 5.3-magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Los Angeles.

The temblor's epicenter was located about 6 miles below the surface of the earth and 23 miles east-southeast of the Channel Islands. It was about 85 miles due west of Los Angeles.

California Institute of Technology seismologist Egill Hauksson told the Los Angeles Times that the last time an earthquake this big hit the area was in 1981 and was a 6-magnitude. It was near the Eastern Santa Cruz Basin Fault Zone.

"Earthquakes happen out there now and again. There's a major offshore fault system," Hauksson said.

A U.S. Geological Survey map indicated people felt the shaking as far north as San Luis Obispo to as far south as San Diego. Inland, residents reported feeling the earthquake in Bakersfield, Victorville and Palmdale.

The Tsunami Warning Center did not issue a tsunami warning in response to the quake.</s>A magnitude 5.3 earthquake struck near the Channel Islands on Thursday afternoon, the U.S. Geological Survey said. The quake was the strongest in Southern California in several years.

The temblor occurred just before 12:30 p.m. and was centered south of Santa Cruz Island. It was felt as far away as Bakersfield, Palmdale and the city of Orange, according to witnesses and the USGS.

The Los Angeles Police Department said it had not received any reports of injuries or damage since the earthquake struck.

The Los Angeles Fire Department said it went into “earthquake mode” in which firefighters deploy and check all major areas of concern, such as freeway overpasses, large buildings and infrastructure for damage. Firefighters said about an hour later that the city was not damaged.

Sgt. Eric Buschow, public information officer for the Ventura County Sheriff's Office, said the office had also received no reports of significant injuries or damage and no large influx of 911 calls.

The L.A. area feels an earthquake of this magnitude on average about once a year, said John Vidale, director of the Southern California Earthquake Center at USC.

There is a 1-in-20 chance that Thursday’s quake will lead to a larger one in the next few weeks, he said. But, more than likely, smaller aftershocks that may not even be felt will follow, he said.

The quake was too small and far away from the coast to trigger any tsunami concerns.

“It would never make a wave that you could see,” he said.

But it was large enough to active the state’s developing earthquake early-warning system.

Vidale said he and colleagues at USC heard beeping 10 to 15 seconds before the quake’s shaking reached their campus.

“We all felt it pretty well. It was small and distinct,” he said. “We heard the warning go off and then we heard the shaking.”

The early-warning system is under development by the USGS and is available only to a limited array of testers, but it is expected that more people will be eligible to test the system later this year.

One person said on Twitter that the warning gave them more than half a minute to prepare.

“I had 34 seconds warning — enough time to drop, cover, and hold on, which I would have done if I knew shaking was going to be strong,” wrote Alissa Walker.

The quake was initially reported as a magnitude 5.0 and upgraded later to 5.3.

Though there were no reports of damage, the quake was felt across a wide area and was a blunt reminder that California is earthquake country.

Earthquake that rattled L.A. area was strongest in years>>

“A 5.3 could be damaging if it was right under our feet,” Vidale said. “It’s right on the edge of being an earthquake that could be dangerous. It’s a reminder that we need to be ready in the future.”

The temblor was located near the Eastern Santa Cruz Basin Fault Zone, said Caltech seismologist Egill Hauksson, and seismologist Lucy Jones said on Twitter that the fault system "moves Southern California around a bend of the San Andreas fault."

"Earthquakes happen out there now and again. There’s a major offshore fault system," Hauksson said.

When asked why some people felt the earthquake but others nearby didn't, Hauksson said where a person is matters a lot. "People in high rises probably felt it pretty well," he said. People on softer soils might also feel stronger shaking.

The last quake to be felt this widely in the L.A. area was a 4.4 quake in Encino in 2014. That quake also shook a wide area and was the largest in the Los Angeles area in four years. That temblor was noted by seismologists as the strongest to hit directly under the Santa Monica Mountains in the 80 years.

The epicenter of Thursday’s quake was south of the Channel Islands. A 4.8 magnitude quake in the same area rattled the region in 2013.

The Santa Barbara area is home to a number of earthquake faults, the largest of which is the Santa Ynez fault, which is 80 miles long and runs just north of the city. That fault is believed to be capable of triggering an earthquake as powerful as magnitude 7.5.

The great Santa Barbara quake of 1925, recorded at a magnitude 6.8, destroyed much of the city’s downtown on State Street, damaged rail lines, caused extensive landslides and was felt as far away as Orange County. It killed 13 people.

Since the Easter Sunday earthquake of 2010 that hit along the California-Mexico border, there have been 14 earthquakes of magnitude 5 or greater in Southern California. Hauksson estimated that perhaps about half of them were felt in Los Angeles.

Get ready for a major quake. What to do before — and during — a big one>>

2:20 p.m.: This article was updated with reports that there was no damage in Los Angeles.

1:45 p.m.: This article was updated with comments from seismologists and the Los Angeles Fire Department.

1:05 p.m.: This article was updated with comments from John Vidale, director of the Southern California Earthquake Center, and information on past Southern California earthquakes.

12:50 p.m.: This article was updated with a comment from the Los Angeles Police Department.

12:40 p.m.: This article was updated with an upgrade to the quake’s magnitude and comments from the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office.

This article was originally published at 12:35 p.m.</s>The 5.3 magnitude off the coast of Southern California didn't do damage on the mainland, but it appears have caused some earth movement on Santa Cruz Island.

The Ventura County Fire Department posted photos of the earth moving on coastal cliffs. The epicenter of the quake was just west of Santa Cruz, one of the channel islands off Ventura and Santa Barbara counties.

A video also showed the quake rattling an eagle's nest on the island, causing one eagle to temporarily fly away from its chicks before returning.

"A 5.3 could be damaging if it was right under our feet," said John Vidale, director of the Southern California Earthquake Center at USC. "It's right on the edge of being an earthquake that could be dangerous. It's a reminder that we need to be ready in the future."</s>A magnitude 5.3 earthquake has struck under the ocean off Southern California and was felt widely along the mainland coast.

There were no immediate reports of damage on Thursday except to a chimney on one of the Channel Islands.

The US Geological Survey said the quake occurred at 12:29pm in the Channel Islands region, about 38 miles southwest of the California city of Ventura.

Some bricks fell from a chimney at an 1860s ranch on Santa Cruz Island but no one was hurt, Yvonne Menard said, spokeswoman for Channel Islands National Park.

The quake's epicentre was 17 miles from Santa Cruz Island, which is largely unpopulated but does have some staff and is visited by campers.

Authorities in Los Angeles and Ventura counties did not report any immediate damage.

The Los Angeles Fire Department said it went into "earthquake mode" and firefighters from all 106 of its firehouses began surveys of their territories, including bridges, dams, large buildings and power lines.

"We currently have no reports of damage or injuries," fire department spokeswoman Margaret Stewart said.

Scientists at the California Institute of Technology's seismology laboratory in Pasadena, northeast of Los Angeles, said the earthquake warning system under development for the West Coast gave about 10 seconds of warning before shaking arrived.

Earthquakes of such size occur about once a year in Southern California, according to veteran seismologist Lucy Jones, recently retired from the USGS.

The 96-square-mile Santa Cruz Island is the largest in the chain of eight Channel Islands, five of which are in the national park.

Most of Santa Cruz, including the historic ranch, is owned by The Nature Conservancy, which cooperatively manages the island with the Park Service.</s>The magnitude-5.3 earthquake that rattled Southern California on Thursday was the strongest in the area several years.Though there were no immediate reports of damage, the quake was felt across a wide area and was a blunt reminder that California is earthquake country. The U.S. Geological Survey put the epicenter about 23 miles off the Channel Islands, about 85 miles west of Los Angeles.It was centered near the Eastern Santa Cruz Basin Fault Zone, Caltech seismologist Egill Hauksson said. "Earthquakes happen out there now and again. There's a major offshore fault system," he said.Seismologist Lucy Jones said on Twitter that the fault system "moves Southern California around a bend of the San Andreas fault."There is a slightly greater likelihood that the the temblor could trigger a larger earthquake, but that chance decreases with time, Hauksson said.The last big earthquake in the Channel Islands region before Thursday's temblor was in 1981, which was a magnitude 6.0, Hauksson said. A magnitude 4.8 quake struck near the islands in 2013.The last quake to be felt this widely in the L.A. area was a magnitude 4.4 in Encino in 2014. That quake also shook a wide area and was the largest in the Los Angeles area in four years. It was the strongest to hit directly under the Santa Monica Mountains in the 80 years.The Santa Barbara area is home to a number of earthquake faults, the largest of which is the Santa Ynez fault, which is 80 miles long and runs just north of the city. That fault is believed to be capable of triggering an earthquake as powerful as 7.5.The great Santa Barbara quake of 1925, recorded as a magnitude 6.8, destroyed a significant portion of the city's downtown area, damaged rail lines and caused extensive landslides on bluffs. It killed 13 people and was felt as far away as Orange County.Since the Easter Sunday earthquake of 2010 that hit along the California-Mexico border, there have been 14 earthquakes of magnitude 5 or greater in Southern California. Hauksson estimated that perhaps about half of them were felt in Los Angeles.</s>Several Santa Clarita residents felt a brief, minor rumble Thursday for a 5.3 earthquake.

The magnitude 5.3 earthquake hit about 35 miles southwest of Channel Islands Beach, according to the California Integrated Seismic Network. The earthquake was reported shortly after 12:25 p.m.

A CalTech seismologist wasn’t surprised Santa Clarita residents felt the quake in our area, considering it was a slightly larger than average quake, said Dr. Susan Hough, USGS seismologist.

However, she said the region will likely feel about 10 such incidents throughout the year and that the earthquake wasn’t necessarily a harbinger of the big one, which has been predicted for years in Southern California.

“I think the Magnitude 5.3 would have been felt in (the Santa Clarita Valley),” Hough said, “earthquakes like this — they’re not a daily occurrence, but they’re not uncommon.”

She added that historical data indicates there’s about a 1-in-20 chance that something bigger will happen in the next three days. However, the chances of the aftershocks being larger than the original quake itself decrease dramatically as the potential size of the aftershock increases. For instance, the odds that something as big as a 6.3 earthquake coming in the next three days decrease to 1-in-200, Hough added.

“There’s a much higher chance of (smaller) aftershocks,” she said. “There was just a 3.1 (magnitude earthquake).”

The Tsunami Warning Center stated that there is no tsunami danger at this time, according to a Tweet from the USGS.

There did not appear to be any damage associated with the incident, according to Los Angeles City Fire officials , who were briefly in “Earthquake Mode” on Thursday:

“Update Earthquake; 1:43PM; 200 N. Main St.; After completing a full survey from both the ground and air of all 470 sq miles of the City of Los Angeles after this morning’s 5.3 earthquake, no damage or injuries were reported. The LAFD is officially out of Earthquake Mode and back in normal operational mode. ; FS 4; Batt 1; Central Bureau; Council District 14; Margaret Stewart:”
A magnitude 5.3 earthquake, the strongest in the region in four years, takes place near Santa Cruz Island off the coast of California, being felt as far as Riverside. No injuries are reported.