Earthquake Hits Los Angeles Area on New Year's Morning

Some residents of the Los Angeles area kicked off 2024 with some slight shaking as an earthquake hit the area.

The quake, which was reported around 8:27 a.m. on New Year’s morning, had a magnitude of 4.1, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. 

It struck off the coast nearly 12 miles south of Rancho Palos Verdes at a depth of about 7 miles, per the USGS.

More than 5,000 people in the area reported feeling the earthquake, with most experiencing weak, light or no shaking, according to data on the USGS’ ”Did You Feel It?” website.

On X (formerly Twitter), several users also reported feeling the quake.

“WELP! How’s that for the first day of the year, LA?! Did you feel it?” journalist Brooke Thomas wrote in a post, while another user joked, “2024 just casually starting LA off with a gentle earthquake.”

For residents of the area, the light shaking was not unusual.

Data from a recent three-year sample shows that each year, an average of five quakes with magnitudes between 4.0 and 5.0 occur in the greater L.A. area, the Los Angeles Times reported.

According to CBS News, authorities said no damage or injuries occurred as a result of the New Year’s Day quake.

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The L.A.-area tremor followed a series of headline-making earthquakes in Japan on Monday — the largest of which had a magnitude of 7.6 — but the Southern California quake was “completely unrelated to Japan,” according to seismologist Lucy Jones.

In a post on X, Jones wrote that the earthquake was “not near any known fault.”

She also said that because of their magnitudes — “Japan's M7.5 is 100,000 times bigger than a M4.1” — the New Year’s Day quake in California was “way too small to even talk about tsunamis.”

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