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Magnitude 4.2 earthquake felt across Southern California

A magnitude 4.2 quake shook Southern California on Dec. 31, 2022. (USGS)

The year may be nearly done, but Mother Nature wasn’t finished shaking Southern California.

A magnitude 4.2 temblor, the largest in a series of quakes, struck the region in the early hours of New Year’s Eve.


The United States Geological Survey said the largest earthquake struck at 4:12 a.m. about 10 miles north of Borrego Springs and at a depth of about 2 km, which The San Diego Union-Tribune called “unusually shallow.”

Though the epicenter was located in a relatively unpopulated area, shaking was reported in Los Angeles and San Diego, as well as near Twentynine Palms and Santa Clarita.

The 4.2 quake serves as a bookend for the San Jacinto fault in December, as a magnitude 3.8 quake struck the area on Dec. 1.