A magnitude-4.4 earthquake that was centered six miles north of Beverly Hills struck around 6:25 a.m. Monday, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
It was felt quite strongly in the KTLA studios in Hollywood as well — with aftershocks felt all over the Internet.
No major damages or injuries were reported, but the shaking was felt as far as Orange, Riverside and Santa Barbara counties.
When the temblor struck during the KTLA 5 Morning News, anchors Chris Schauble and Megan Henderson were on camera. They ducked for cover underneath the anchor desk during Monday’s broadcast.
Their reactions — especially Schauble’s facial expressions — were soon generating almost as much talk on social media as the quake itself.
Schauble was a good sport about the Twitter explosion, even changing his profile picture to show his own earthquake-shocked countenance.
The often-quoted Lucy Jones, a seismologist with the U.S. Geological Survey and researcher at Caltech, had praise for Schauble and Henderson.
“I was very proud to see the KTLA anchors going under their desk during the earthquake; that was absolutely the right thing to do,” Jones said.
“People who are laughing at them for doing it — you don’t know at the beginning how big an earthquake’s going to be,” she said. “You might feel a little silly doing it for the small ones, but when the big one happens, it means you stay alive after the lights come crashing down.”
Jones called it a “great example” that everyone should follow in the event of an earthquake.
The U.S. Geological Survey tweeted “Exactly what you should do.”
The federal agency later corrected its mention of Megan “Anderson” to “Henderson,” tweeting “We got so excited we got a little crazy on the keys.”
Great job by @KTLA's Megan Anderson & @ChrisKTLA by getting under their desks during today's #earthquake. Exactly what you should do!
— USGS (@USGS) March 17, 2014
@MeganHenderson big shout out to you too for ducking, covering, and holding on. (@ChrisKTLA )
— USGS (@USGS) March 17, 2014