The United States Geological Service says dozens of small earthquakes struck the southeastern corner of California on Sunday. The largest quake was a magnitude 5.5 and was about three miles northwest of the town of Brawley. Other quakes were in the 5.3 magnitude area. There have been around 30 quakes registered so far.
The quakes seem to have caused minor damage. In the alerts issued by the USGS, the nearby cities were listed as Brawley, Westmorland, Calipatria, and El Centro, California, and Tijuana, Mexico.
The area has had earthquake swarms before, the last major one in 2005. Sunday’s quake cluster occurred in what scientists call a transition zone between the Imperial and San Andreas faults, so they weren’t assigning the earthquakes to either fault.
