California Earthquake Violently Shakes Houses

A magnitude 4.2 earthquake hit southern California on Wednesday evening.

The quake hit at 7:43 p.m. local time about 2 miles (3 kilometers) southwest of San Bernardino, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The USGS listed the depth at 9.63 miles (15.5 kilometers).

The quake resulted in "light" shaking in places near the epicenter, including in Fontana, Riverside, Rialto, and Moreno Valley, according to the USGS. Weaker shaking was felt across the region, including in Los Angeles and Long Beach.

The Modified Mercalli Intensity Scale defines light shaking as feeling like a heavy truck striking a building, which will disturb dishes, windows and doors.

Wednesday's quake is the latest in a series of similar quakes that have affected the region this month. An earthquake with a magnitude of 4.1 hit the Los Angeles area on New Year's Day.

The quake was "very deep" and hit "very close to the San Jacinto fault," veteran seismologist Lucy Jones wrote in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

"That part of the fault is generally locked - it had a M7 [magnitude 7] in the 19th century. We often see small quakes like this below locked segments," she wrote.

Californians took to social media to share videos of the moment the quake hit.

One person shared video of their cats being rattled as their bedroom shook during the quake.

"Earthquake footage from couple hours ago. hit san bernardino! i'm like a mile away from the epicenter," they wrote.

Those living outside of the quake's epicenter also reported feeling it, including in Burbank, Santa Fe Springs and Chino, according to NBC Los Angeles.

Timothy Key told the station that he was recording video at the time the quake hit and captured the moment it shook his home.

"Out of nowhere, I just felt this shaking and I'm like, 'Oh, whoa, what's going on?'" he said. "I was still recording at the time…it was just chaos.

"It was like the whole house was about to collapse, like it was about to collapse on me. It was kind of scary but we knew it was an earthquake, so it was kind of like, 'OK, let's calm down.'"

Earlier this month, Newsweek reported that the USGS's latest National Seismic Hazard Model found nearly 75 percent of the U.S. could experience a damaging earthquake, and that California is at risk of greater shaking.

Mark Petersen, USGS geophysicist and lead author of the study, told Newsweek that "these models do not predict earthquakes but forecast where earthquakes are more likely to occur, the frequency and magnitudes of potential earthquakes across the U.S., and the levels of shaking that we expect.

"These results can be applied in building codes, risk assessments, insurance, and public policy planning documents that should provide better information for making earthquake mitigation and planning decisions."

Update 1/25/24, 5:12 a.m. ET: This article has been updated with additional information.