Quake Encore: Magnitude-4.0 Earthquake Hits SoCal

Minor damage reported

A magnitude-4.1 earthquake that was later downgraded to a magnitude 4.0 struck near Hawthorne on Tuesday afternoon, but there were no reports of major damage.

The epicenter was located 2 miles northeast from Hawthorne, 2 miles east southeast from Lennox, and 2 miles south southeast from Inglewood.

The earthquake, which had a depth of 7.5 miles, struck at 3:49 p.m., according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

At 3:51 p.m., a magnitude-2.5 quake hit in the same area, about 2 miles west of Hawthorne and 4 miles south of Inglewood.

As it did over the weekend, the Los Angeles Fire Department briefly went into "earthquake emergency mode," which requires the nearly 1,100 on-duty LAFD personnel to actively survey the department's 471-square-mile jurisdiction from the ground and air.

Less than an hour later, the LAFD resumed normal operating status, according to spokesman Brian Humphrey, who said firefighters in neighborhoods closest to the epicenter reported no significant damage, fires or injuries.

 "We received quite a few phone calls," said Lt. Jim Royer of the Hawthorne Police Department. "As of right now, we've experienced no damage and no cessation of city services.

 "The first one was 4.7, this is 4.1, so we are getting smaller. It's going in the right direction," he said.

In the Hawthorne vicinity, there were sporadic reports of items and pictures knocked off shelves and walls in homes and stores.

Tuesday's tremors follow a magnitude-4.7 earthquake that struck in the same area on Sunday night.

Seismologists say Sunday's quake happened on the Newport-Inglewood Fault, a fault line they first discovered when a quake hit in nearly the exact spot in 1920.  The same fault was responsible for a damaging earthquake in Long Beach in 1933. Some minor damage was reported from Sunday's quake, such as broken windows at a business in Long Beach and items falling off store shelves, according to police and fire officials.

The rumbling on Sunday -- which was felt throughout the Greater Los Angeles area and as far away as San Diego and Riverside counties -- marked the strongest quake to strike the Southland since a magnitude-5.5 that hit Chino Hills last July 29.

After Sunday's quake, USGS seismologist Susan Hough said there would likely be more aftershocks in the "threes, maybe a four," and there was a 5 percent chance of a larger quake.

"People should be on their toes," she said.

Looks like she was right.

If you felt the quake, please leave a comment below.

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