California was shaken by 13 earthquakes in a span of just 25 minutes overnight, the National Weather Service (NWS) confirmed.
The first earthquake struck shortly after midnight Monday and struck northwest of El Centro, a city in the southern border region.
The United States Geological Survey (USGS) said the earthquake registered a magnitude of 4.8 and reportedly shook much of San Diego County.
The area was hit by a 4.5 aftershock just six minutes later, followed by a series of smaller aftershocks, which originated west of the Salton Sea.
Meteorologists have said the earthquakes appear to have been caused by the San Jacinto fault system. It is one of the most active faults in Southern California.
The first earthquake struck shortly after midnight and struck northwest of El Centro, a city in the southern border region.
The United States Geological Survey (USGS) said the earthquake registered a magnitude of 4.8 and reportedly shook much of San Diego County.
The first earthquake occurred at 12:36 a.m. on Monday. The epicenter of the main earthquake was 11.7 miles deep, the USGS revealed.
The earthquake, which was followed by twelve other earthquakes, prompted a tremor alert from the USGS.
‘Good morning, Southern California! Did you feel the magnitude 4.8 earthquake about 2 miles northwest of El Centro at 12:36 am? The #ShakeAlert system has been activated,’ the agency wrote in X.
The #ShakeAlert system estimated that the earthquake exceeded magnitude 5.0, so partners @MyShakeApp, @SanDiegoCounty #ShakeReadySD, @Android and @fema Wireless Emergency Alerts sent alerts to cell phones.
The NWS, which shared a map of the earthquake online, tweeted: “It’s been a busy night to the east…several small earthquakes have occurred in El Centro in the last 15 minutes.” A couple of them sat in our office. Until 00:53 there have been 13!’
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.