4.4 magnitude Quake hitting during lunchtime near South Pasadena knocking items off walls and giving this woman a scare grabbing a baby I got up and ran to my husband honey what happened did you feel that earthquake is happening people felt the ground shaking for Miles was a little bit intense I wasn't a sharp jolt at exactly 12:20 p.m. left the city rattled quite literally as a magnitude 4.5 earthquake hit the heart of the Metropolis but it wasn't just the shaking that had everyone on edge scientists too took immediate action leading to evacuations in some areas what sparked this sudden reaction and why did a moderate Quake cause such a stir to understand this let's get into what really happened and what it means for all of those living in Quake prone La the Quake a moderate but unsettling event when the earthquake hit Los Angeles on August 12th 2024 it registered as a magnitude for .5 I know what you might be thinking 4.5 doesn't sound all that powerful right and in the grand scheme of things it's not a catastrophic earthquake by any means but here's the thing even a quake of that magnitude can shake things up quite a bit especially when it strikes a densely populated area like Los Angeles this is a very strong Ratt pretty strong here 821 here on the air we're experiencing very strong shaking I think we need to get under the desk all right we're going to go to break we'll be right back after in this case the shaking lasted for about 12 seconds which might not seem like much but trust me when the ground is moving Beneath Your Feet those seconds can feel like an eternity the jolt was sharp and sudden catching everyone off guard and it didn't take long before the city started buzzing with reports of minor damage California and showing you the Aerials right now of the city hall right there is more R water uh gushing from there take Pasadena hall for example the Quake caused an elevator to stop in its tracks trapping a few unlucky folks inside until help arrived and if that wasn't enough a pipe burst in the same building causing water to spill out and create a bit of a mess it wasn't just Pasadena Hall that felt the impact though all across the city people were reporting that the glass picture frame they had hanging on their walls had come crashing down shattering into pieces it was the kind of damage that while not severe definitely made its presence known a lot of people felt again 4.4 magnitude Quake we were sitting here in the Los Angeles Bureau we could feel the rumble a lot of people stood up it almost felt like you know many were wondering is this what we thought it was because it was so quick usually they last a little bit longer but you felt the rumble you could see the lights in our our news Bureau grow shake and then everything stopped what exactly does this all mean in terms of intensity well seismologist use something called the modified merali intensity MMI scale to measure how strongly an earthquake is felt and the kind of damage it causes the shaking from this earthquake was categorized as MMI 5 which is considered moderate intensity at this level it's strong enough to be felt by nearly everyone in the area and it can cause small objects to shift Windows to Rattle and as we saw picture frames to fall why this earthquake happened understanding The Faults it happened along the pente hills thrust fault system stretching from Southern San Gabriel Valley through downtown LA out to Hollywood a complex web of buried faults that seismologists say is far more dangerous than the famous San Andreas you might be wondering why this earthquake happened in the first place well it all comes down to the complex web of faults that crisscross underneath Los Angeles the city sits on a bit of a geological hotbed with the land constantly being squeezed and pulled in different directions one of the main culprits behind this particular Quake is something called a thrust fault which is pretty common in this part of California a thrust fault is a type of fault where one block of the Earth's crust is pushed up over another this happens because the land is under pressure literally imagine the area between the Palos veres Hills and the San Gabriel mountains as two massive pieces of Earth being slowly but surely pushed toward each other this compression is a constant process and although it's happening at a snail's pace about 0.2 in per year it adds up over time over thousands of years this pressure builds and builds until eventually something's got to give when it does the energy is released in the form of an earthquake David and Ellen seismologists have known about that fault line and that fault system I should say for more than two decades now they've also known just how much damage it could cause if it were to activate on a massive Quake all because of where it's located this might sound a bit alarming but it's a pretty routine occurrence in Los Angeles the city has been experiencing these kinds of quakes for thousands of years and they're not likely to stop anytime soon the earthquake we just experiened is part of a pattern these moderate Quakes tend to happen roughly once every 26 months in the Los Angeles area it's almost like clockwork the Aftershock anxiety what to expect next whenever an earthquake hits the first thing on everyone's mind after the initial shock wears off is usually what's next it's only natural to worry about aftershocks those smaller Tremors that often follow a larger Quake after all just when you think it's over the ground might start shaking again and that's enough to keep anyone on edge and the reality of aftershocks statistically speaking they almost always follow a significant earthquake and they follow a kind of predictable pattern the larger the initial Quake the more Aftershock you're likely to see but before you start panicking let's put things into perspective the earthquake we just experienced in Los Angeles was a magnitude 4.5 not massive by any means but enough to get our attention what's the likelihood that something bigger is on the way the good news is that the odds of a larger Quake like a magnitude 6.0 or more are incredibly low about 1 in 2,000 that's a tiny chance and while it's not impossible it's not something you need to lose sleep over in other words the big one isn't likely to follow this event so if this is a typical 4.4 it might have one Aftershock as big as as 3.5 on average and then a number of twos and and aftershocks that are too small to even be filled there is always a chance with an earthquake in California it's about 1 in 20 that something bigger is going to happen within the next few days what what's far more likely is that we'll see some smaller aftershocks over the next few days these could be in the magnitude 3 to four range enough to be felt but not strong enough to cause significant damage there's about a one in three chance that we'll get at least one magnitude 3 Aftershock and as for a magnitude 4 there's about a one in 20 chance these aftershocks are usually pretty short-lived and while they might rattle your nerves they're generally harmless interestingly because of the nature of this particular earthquake some of us might not feel any aftershocks at all it's a bit of a mixed bag some folks might feel a few weak Tremors While others might not notice a thing it all depends on where you are and how the energy from the Quake is distributed historical context Los Angeles and earthquakes on this week leading to the strongest shaking felt in East LA in years this is a reminder that Los Angeles is earthquake country but we also are probably the best prepared City Los Angeles has a bit of a reputation when it comes to earthquakes if you've lived here for any length of time you know that feeling the sudden jolt the rattling Windows the heart skipping moment when you realize the ground beneath you is moving it's almost as if earthquakes are just a part of life in this city but why is that to understand we need to look back at some of the most significant Quakes that have shaped LA's history one of the more memorable ones was the Whittier narrow earthquake in 1987 it hit with a magnitude of 5.9 and caused quite a bit of damage especially in the San Gabriel Valley buildings were damaged freeways cracked and unfortunately lives were lost it was a stark reminder of just how powerful these forces of nature can be even when they're not among the biggest Quakes then there's the Northridge earthquake of 1994 this one was a real wakeup call with a magnitude of 6.7 it struck early in the morning catching everyone off guard the devastation was widespread collapsed buildings Broken Bridges and sadly dozens of lives lost the Northridge Quake is often remembered as one of the most destructive in California's history causing billions of dollars in damage and leaving a lasting impact on the Region's infrastructure so why does Los Angeles seem to attract these seismic events it all comes down to the area's unique geological setup as I mentioned earlier Louisiana sits on a network of faults and the region is constantly Under Pressure literally over thousands of years the land here has been compressed as the Pacific Plate pushes against the North American Plate this ongoing compression is why we see so much seismic activity The Faults Are like pressure points and every so often they release that builtup energy in the form of an earthquake if you're liking this video so far don't forget to like And subscribe to the channel what's interesting is how common these events are in the Greater Los Angeles area excluding the infamous San Andreas fault there have been at least 30 magnitude five Quakes and six magnitude six quakes since 1769 that averages out to a magnitude 5 earthquake roughly every seven years and a magnitude six Quake every 42 years or so while it might seem like these events are random there's a sort of Rhythm to them a pattern that's been repeating for centuries let us know your thoughts about this video in the comments and remember to like And subscribe for more intriguing discoveries like this see you in the next video