Thirteen earthquakes hit California in just 25 minutes overnight, the National Weather Service (NWS) has confirmed.
The first earthquake occurred just after midnight on Monday and struck northwest of El Centro, a city in the southern border region.
The United States Geological Survey (USGS) said the earthquake had 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, which was then followed by a series of smaller aftershocks originating west of the Salton Sea.
The earthquakes appear to have been caused by the San Jacinto fault system, meteorologists say. It is one of the most active faults in Southern California.
The first earthquake occurred just after midnight and struck northwest of El Centro, a city in the southern border area
The United States Geological Survey (USGS) said the earthquake had a magnitude of 4.8 and reportedly shook much of San Diego County.
The first earthquake occurred Monday at 12:36 p.m. The epicenter of the largest shock was 11.2 miles (18.7 kilometers) deep, the USGS revealed.
The earthquake, which was followed by twelve other earthquakes, triggered a USGS shock alert.
‘Good morning Southern California! Did you feel the magnitude 4.8 earthquake at 12:36 p.m., about 2 miles northwest of El Centro? The #ShakeAlert system has been activated,” the agency wrote on X.
The #ShakeAlert system estimated the earthquake above magnitude 5.0, so mobile phone alerts were delivered by partners @MyShakeApp, @SanDiegoCounty #ShakeReadySD, @Android and @fema Wireless Emergency Alerts.”
The NWS, which shared a map of the earthquake online, tweeted: “It was a busy night to our east…several small earthquakes have occurred in El Centro in the last 15 minutes. Some of these were felt in our office. As of 00:53 there were 13!’
This is a development story. Check back for updates.