Quakes Under Ocean Rattle San Diego Coast

A flurry of three moderate earthquakes, magnitude 4.5, 4.1 and 4.3, hit off the San Diego County coast over a 3 1/2-hour period late Thursday and early Friday, the U.S. Geological Survey reported.

The quakes, southeast of San Clemente Island, were centered 55 miles west of San Diego and took place at 9:35 and 10:38 p.m. Thursday and 1:04 a.m. Friday. They were felt only lightly along the coast. No damage was reported.

Scientists initially said the quakes were 60 miles closer to Los Angeles in the Santa Catalina Channel.

Jim Mori, scientist in charge of the Geological Survey’s Pasadena field office, said the quakes occurred outside the network of seismic instruments, and the locations thus can be misinterpreted in preliminary reports.

The temblors, at a depth of four miles beneath the ocean floor, were 24 miles southwest of the 5.3 undersea thrust quake of July 13, 1986, which killed one person and injured 28 in San Diego County. Mori said the latest quakes were of the horizontal strike-slip type.