A magnitude-4.5 earthquake rattled Southern California on Wednesday morning, though there were no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The tremor struck around 6:42 a.m. (9:42 a.m. ET) about 2 miles north of Banning, the U.S. Geological Survey said. That’s about 25 miles east-southeast of San Bernardino and 85 miles east of Los Angeles.
The quake was centered about 1 mile (1.6 kilometers) deep, the USGS reports. California is no stranger to powerful quakes, including magnitude-7.9 tremors in 1857 (at Fort Tejon) and 1906 (in San Francisco), and a 6.9 in Northern California in 1989 that killed 63 people and destroyed part of the Bay Bridge.
Wednesday’s seismic event doesn’t come close to that, though it is appreciably stronger than the smattering of other quakes from the last few days, as reported by the Southern California Earthquake Data Center. FULL REPORT
