SAN DIEGO - Four earthquakes in the Gulf of California, off the coast of Baja, shook much of Mexico Monday. The strongest quake was felt all the way to San Diego.
A magnitude 6.9 earthquake hit near Santa Isabel, Baja California, Mexico at 11:00 Monday morning. Just five minutes earlier a 5.8 magnitude earthquake was felt in the same general area. Two others followed about a half hour later.
The epicenter of the strongest quake was 354 miles southeast of Tijuana. The 5.8 magnitude quake was centered 328 miles southeast of Tijuana.
There were numerous reports of people in downtown San Diego feeling slight shaking in tall buildings. "I looked up and I saw the light balances going back and forth and I thought wow," says Ron Kaiser who was in the middle of jury duty. "I felt the building going back and forth and it maybe lasted 30 seconds," says Jim Barwick who was sitting in his office in Downtown San Diego.
The San Diego Fire Department pulled fire engines out of their bays at the downtown headquarters as a precaution.
There were also reports of people feeling the shaking in Carlsbad, El Cajon, Santee and Chula Vista. The U.S. Geological Survey reports people as far north as Los Angeles felt the earthquake hundreds of miles away.
People in Phoenix, Arizona also report feeling the strongest of the Baja quakes.
Two more earthquakes were reported about a half hour after the first two, measuring 5.9 and 5.0 in the same general area.
Scientists say there's no tsunami threat to the West Coast and Hawaii following the earthquakes.
Pictures from Mexico City show people streaming out of buildings after the strongest earthquake was felt there.
Civil protection officials in the two states on either side of the quake — Baja California and Sonora — said there were no reports of damage or injury.
The quakes were all centered in the middle of the narrow slice of sea between the Baja peninsula and Mexico's mainland, which should help cut down on its chances of causing major damage, said Don Blakeman, an analyst at the U.S. National Earthquake Information Center.
"It's going to be felt extremely widely and it's possible there may be some damage but there's no way to speculate at this point," Blakeman said.
San Diego Geologist Pat Abbott says these quakes were centered on a fault that sits on the same plate edge as the infamous San Andreas. "When one part of the edge moves, that definitely effects others. It's inching us closer to our big earthquake," says Abbott.
Experts agree that when you look at California as a whole, the next place a big earthquake is expected, is along the southern San Andreas and Abbott says theres no question, it will rock San Diego. "We can tell you the size, it will be like 7.7 or 7.5. We know it is coming, we know where it will hit, we just can't tell you when, " says Abbott.
