3.6 Quake Near Simi Valley Felt Across Los Angeles Area

A magnitude 3.6 earthquake centered two miles west of Simi Valley on Wednesday was felt widely in the Los Angeles area, including Brentwood, Santa Monica and Hollywood.

There were no reports of injuries or damage in the 3:44 p.m. temblor, which was unrelated to the region’s wildfires. The quake occurred in the aftershock zone from the 6.7 Northridge quake of 1994, said Caltech seismologist Egill Hauksson.

Another quake, which occurred at 11:18 p.m. Tuesday, was a magnitude 3.0 centered 44 miles southeast of Barstow, near the town of Ludlow. That is in the Hector Mine aftershock zone of the Mojave Desert. The Hector Mine quake measured magnitude 7.1.

The Simi Valley temblor brought more than 1,200 public responses on the U.S. Geological Survey’s “Did-you-feel-it?” Web site.

The descriptions from the public indicated that the strongest shaking of the quake was a IV on the Modified Mercalli scale. This indicates that, in the Simi Valley and parts of the San Fernando Valley, the quake rocked parked cars, rattled windows and glasses and swung doors open or closed.

There have been about 16,000 aftershocks of the Northridge quake. The most recent notable ones before Wednesday’s were a swarm of 10 -- the strongest being 3.9 -- centered west of the Santa Clarita Valley on Aug. 27.