Just getting ready to access ETS and felt a definite shock -appears to be a 4.7 in Los Angeles (Westwood) time was 6:25 AM. Not the 9.0 in a current thread, but it definitely got my attention. Details to follow....

Yep, Recent Earthquakes in CA & NV

Edit:
and if you click on the big red square you go to:
map centered on LA and you see Northridge right next to the big red square. Northridge... where have I heard that before ???

Stay safe everyone!

At 8.5 km depth, possibly a left-lateral associated with one of your E-W faults:
M4.4 - 9km NNW of Westwood, California

To interpret the "beach ball" focal mechanism diagram, see A Primer on Focal Mechanism Solutions

If you are feeling all scientific, you can fill out the "Did you feel it?" page.

I actually got to the USGS site before they had posted info on this, and I had a go at the "Did you feel it" section. Info was up within about five minutes of the quake - pretty impressive.

I was finally able to get to my first cup of morning tea after this shocking interruption.

The first estimates of magnitude, epicenter, depth, focal mechanism, etc are all done automatically by software, using a network of seismometers. This is very useful technology. For example the tsunami warning centers use this sort of thing to decide if they need to put out a warning. Later analysis by humans can refine and improve those estimates, so you might read tomorrow that the magnitude is slightly different from this first estimate.

The severity of shaking one feels is somewhat dependent on local geology. For example, bedrock behaves differently than artificial fill. The "did you feel it" data is useful for estimating risk in future quakes, for various local areas. Also for different kinds of structures. A single observation doesn't mean a lot, but large numbers of "crowd sourced" observations from around an area start to build a picture. I always try to fill out the "did you feel it" when I feel a quake.

Science is cool!

Glad to see you're okay and it wasn't too bad.

Thank you, Phaedrus.

I turned on the TV and whatever damage occurred wasn't enough to make any headlines. One station did show some footage of their news room staff diving under their desks.

I am not a fan of the local TV coverage (way too superficial), but they are very good at covering disasters....Practice makes perfect.

Hey, this is California, after all. News stations jump to dramatic "Storm Watch" coverage when a little bit of rain starts to fall this winter.

We go to so-and-so in Malibu. "Well, as you can see, it's raining."

And now to so-and-so in Long Beach. "Same thing here. It's raining. Back to the studio..."

Do we really need the news to tell us that it's raining lightly outside? LOL

Of course! Especially when the weather person qualifies as rather decent eye candy. Isn't that what the news is all about?