3.6-magnitude earthquake wakes up Los Angeles area, geologists report

A 3.6-magnitude earthquake shook Southern California near Rancho Cucamonga, the U.S. Geological Survey reports.

The 3-mile deep quake hit about 4 miles south of Lytle Creek, northeast of Los Angeles, at 2:28 a.m. Pacific time Wednesday, Dec. 8, according to the USGS.

Hundreds of people from as far away as Visalia and Tehachapi reported feeling the tremor to the agency.

“Was in deep sleep for this one,” wrote one person on Twitter. “My husband felt it and immediately said it was an earthquake, but I sleepily thought it was just the cats running down the stairs (he then asked me exactly how fat I thought the cats are).”

“Decent size jolt,” another Twitter post read. “Enough to shake the whole house.”

Magnitude measures the energy released at the source of the earthquake, the U.S. Geological Survey says. It replaces the old Richter scale.

Quakes between 2.5 and 5.4 magnitude are often felt but rarely cause much damage, according to Michigan Tech.

This story was originally published December 8, 2021 at 6:13 AM with the headline "3.6-magnitude earthquake wakes up Los Angeles area, geologists report."