More than 1,400 residents in Southern California felt shaking on Thursday morning after an earthquake hit off the coast of Port Hueneme, California.
The earthquake, a magnitude 4.0, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS), occurred just after 2 a.m. local time. There was no tsunami warning and the USGS issued a green alert, indicating it wasn't likely there would be casualties or damages.
The tremor was enough to rouse some people from their slumber and 1,425 people reported having felt the quake to the USGS. Those in the cities of Port Hueneme, Oxnard Shores, El Rio, Camarillo, El Rio and Channel Islands Beach would have experienced the strongest shaking, although it would have still been moderate. Those in Long Beach, Los Angeles, Glendale and Huntington Beach may have also felt light shaking.
The hashtag "earthquake" was trending on Twitter on Thursday morning, with multiple people saying they used the social media site to confirm that they felt an earthquake. One person commented that it felt as if someone was kicking their bed and others claimed they thought they imagined it.
Thomas Laughlin, a professional wrestler better known as Tommy Dreamer, joked that he ate too much on Wednesday night, put on weight and tripped over his suitcase at 2:13 a.m., the same time as the earthquake. "I apologize to the lovely state of California," the wrestler added.
Earthquakes are measured on the Richter scale, named after its developer, Charles F. Richter. The scale measures the amount of seismic energy and assigns a magnitude ranging from less than a 2.5 to greater than an 8.0.
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About 300 miles north of Port Hueneme, residents in the Morgan Hill area also might have had their slumber interrupted by an earthquake. On Wednesday evening, shortly after 11 p.m. local time, a Magnitude 3.9 earthquake hit Morgan Hill. More than 3,300 people reported feeling the shake to the USGS, with the strongest being in Morgan Hill, San Martin and Gilroy.
While people closest to the quake might have felt light shaking, those as far north as San Francisco might have felt weak shaking. Similar to the Port Hueneme earthquake in magnitude, the one in Morgan Hill wasn't expected to cause loss to property or human life, either.
Just two days into 2020, the Southern California Earthquake Data Center reported California has experienced more than 160 earthquakes, with Thursday's off the coast of Port Hueneme being the strongest.
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