3.3-magnitude earthquake rattles Santa Monica Bay

November 6, 2012 – LOS ANGELES – A 3.3-magnitude earthquake struck the Santa Monica Bay shortly before 6:40 p.m. Monday, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. No damage has been reported. Dispatchers at the Manhattan Beach and Hermosa Beach police departments said they felt the quake, but had no calls reporting damage. “I felt it slightly,” the Manhattan Beach dispatcher, who declined to give her name, said. “But we’ve had no calls.” The Hermosa Beach dispatcher said she felt it, but there also were no calls there, which she said was surprising. “Usually there are some calls,” she said. A deputy at the sheriff’s Marina Del Rey Station said he didn’t feel the quake and no one called. As of 7 p.m., nearly 200 people—some from as far north as Agoura Hills—reported feeling the earthquake on the USGS Community Internet Intensity Map. The temblor’s epicenter was about 9 miles southwest of Marina del Rey; 10 miles west-northwest of Hermosa Beach; and 10 miles south-southwest of Santa Monica. It struck about 7 miles under the ocean floor. According to fault maps on the USGS websites, the earthquake appears to have occurred near the Palos Verdes fault, which runs from just south of Dana Point and up through the Palos Verdes Peninsula before ending in the northern portion of the Santa Monica Bay. –The Patch