4.4-Magnitude Quake Rattles Southern California

Millions across Southern California were rattled by a 4.4-magnitude earthquake, though there were no reports of significant damage, according to the United States Geological Survey.

The earthquake was centered just outside of Pasadena, about five miles northeast of downtown Los Angeles, according to the agency.

“It was a pretty good jolt,” said Susan Hough, a seismologist with the U.S.G.S. who was on the California Institute of Technology campus in Pasadena when the earthquake struck. “It was clearly a decent shake, though not huge.”

The earthquake, which was followed two minutes later by a 2.1-magnitude aftershock, was felt more than 100 miles away in Bakersfield, San Diego and Joshua Tree National Park, according to the U.S.G.S. The earthquake’s epicenter was in El Sereno, a small neighborhood in northeast Los Angeles.

That scientists were not yet sure which fault had produced the earthquake, though it appeared close to the Puente Hills Fault, which runs through the Los Angeles basin into northern Orange County. The fault line, discovered in 1999, can produce devastating earthquakes, scientists say, and was responsible for the 1987 Whittier Narrows earthquake that killed eight people.

Firefighters from each of the city’s 106 fire stations were driving through their districts to survey any effects, Margaret Stewart, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles Fire Department said, and would soon be able to provide more detailed assessments.

In Pasadena, the leafy suburb not far from the center of the quake, students in local schools who were back for their first day of the new year got a real-life “drop, hold and cover” drill, though there were no reports of injuries or damage, said Lisa Derderian, a spokeswoman for the city.

The California Highway Patrol also said that it hadn’t received any reports of accidents or damage related to the quake.