Moderate Quakes Hit Donner Pass and Big Bear Areas

Moderate earthquakes occurred Saturday morning in both Northern and Southern California, with the Donner Pass area near Lake Tahoe hit harder, the U.S. Geological Survey reported.

A magnitude 4.8 temblor at 7:34 a.m., centered 13 miles west of Truckee, just north of Interstate 80, was the strongest of nine quakes felt near Donner Pass, northwest of Lake Tahoe. Three of them exceeded magnitude 3.0.

None of Saturday’s quakes, all in mountainous areas, caused damage or injuries.

Eight aftershocks, most in the morning, were felt throughout the Donner Pass area. The strongest aftershock, a 3.4, occurred at 8:30 a.m.

A few hours earlier, at 12:28 a.m., a magnitude 4.1 quake shook the seismically active Big Bear area of the Southland.

This temblor was centered about four miles east of Big Bear City near the locale of a powerful aftershock to the 7.3 Landers-Big Bear quakes of June 28, 1992. However, Caltech seismologists termed it a new quake and not another aftershock in that sequence.

The Big Bear quake was felt in the San Bernardino and Palm Springs areas and as far south as Perris in Riverside County.

Two small aftershocks, both of less than magnitude 2.0, were recorded.

Aside from a magnitude 5.2 temblor near Napa in the Bay Area that caused two serious injuries and millions of dollars of damage Sept. 3, this has been a comparatively light year for earthquakes in California.