A 4.8 magnitude earthquake and several aftershocks shook El Centro, California, early Feb. 12, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) reported.
“The Brawley Seismic Zone near the US-Mexico border ... is notoriously swarmy, and it woke up last night,” the USGS said in an X post.
The quake hit at 12:36 a.m. two miles northwest of El Centro at a depth of 11 miles. El Centro is 113 miles east of San Diego and about 10 miles from the Mexico border.
More than two dozen aftershocks were felt, all ranging from 2.5 to 4.5, and all within 3 miles of El Centro or Imperial, five miles north.
Reports of damage were mild.
The USGS community intensity map showed people as far as San Diego to the west and Victorville to the northwest reporting weak shaking.
Responding to a question on X about “the big one” possibly coming, the USGS said: “When a moderate earthquake occurs in a region known to produce swarms, more earthquakes are certainly possible.”
A forecast of swarm and aftershock should be available later today, according to the USGS.
According to the Southern California Earthquake Data Center, the Brawley fault zone is a set of faults that “probably ruptures in a magnitude 6 event every 30 to 40 years or so, along with its neighbor, the Imperial fault zone.” The last time such happened was in 1979.
The data center, part of the California Institute of Technology, is funded by a USGS grant.
