< The Latest 2025-04-15T08:00:18+0000
The Pasadena Star-News | Mon 04/14 10:27am PST | Gary Robbins
A magnitude 5.2 earthquake near Julian rattled much of Southern California and Tijuana just after 10 a.m. Monday, prompting brief evacuations in downtown San Diego and shaking cities as far away as Oxnard and Palm Springs.
The temblor, with an epicenter roughly 3 miles south of Julian, caused especially hard shaking there and in Ramona, San Diego Country Estates, Pine Valley and Cuyamaca Rancho State Park, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
Within about 90 minutes, it had produced four aftershocks in the 3.0 to 3.9 range. Sequences of this kind rarely lead to much larger quakes.
Matthew Weingarten, associate professor of geology at San Diego State University, said that while it remains to be seen, it’s most likely that the mid-morning earthquake was the mainshock, which is the largest in a series of earthquakes. According to USGS estimates, there is a 21% chance of at least one aftershock of magnitude 4 or higher within the next week.
There were no immediate reports of widespread damage, but the California Highway Patrol received several reports of rockslides around the region.
Caltrans San Diego posted on social media photos of several fallen boulders blocking lanes on state Route 76 near East Grade Road near Lake Henshaw. There was also a report to CHP dispatchers that there had been a rockslide on La Cresta Road near Flume Road in the Granite Hills area, just east of El Cajon.
CHP also had a report of a dirt or rockslide on Palomar Mountain near the entrance to the state park and sent officers to check it out.
Cal Fire Capt. Mike Cornette said crews had been out assessing the area for downed lines, fallen rocks and debris, but found no major damage. Cornette was in Descanso — not far south of the epicenter — when he felt “the craziest earthquake I have ever been in.”
“Seemed like it was 10 seconds. It was quite a jolt, then kept rolling,” he said.
The North County Transit District adjusted service in response to the quake, operating Sprinter trains on a reduced schedule and Coaster service on a speed restriction, with a bus bridge between Solana Beach and Sorrento Valley.
The temblor started 8.3 miles deep, immediately south of the Elsinore fault zone — one of the busiest seismic zones in California, according to the USGS.
The 190-mile long strike-slip fault extends from near the U.S.-Mexico border through San Diego County to the northern end of the Santa Ana mountains near Los Angeles, and it is capable of producing a quake as powerful as 7.5.
Strike-slip faults generally move horizontally. It’s not clear how much the Elsinore fault moved Monday. According to Weingarten, the measured slip-rate on this section of the fault is between 1 millimeter and 5 millimeters a year, based on similar fault sections to the north and south.
Many people who subscribe to ShakeAlert, a USGS early warning system, received notices of the quake on their phones and watches Monday a second or two before they felt it.
In Santa Ysabel, the shaking tossed around merchandise at the Barn Vintage Marketplace.
Owner Brandi Smothers was in the kitchen at her nearby home when her antique pottery “came flying off the shelves.” She headed to her shop and found antique mirrors “down off the shelves and broken.”
The second floor was a little harder hit. “Anything that could fall is on the ground,” she said — but still, she added, “I’m thinking we probably got away OK.”
At the nearby Julian Pie Shop, office manager Robin Young was talking with a customer when the earthquake hit.
“It was pretty powerful. It was intense,” Young said. But “it didn’t last long enough to get a chance to react. Everyone froze.”
Even hikers who had just begun their monthslong journey on the Pacific Crest Trail felt it in the county’s backcountry.
“Felt two separate shakes that each lasted about a second,” one person, who said he was on the trail near Warner Springs, wrote on Reddit. “Was pretty wild seeing the trail and all the vegetation around me shake violently like that.”
Video from the San Diego Zoo Safari Park shows a herd of African elephants respond to the movement, first running as the ground shakes, then coming together to form a tight circle around a young elephant. The group stayed tightly together for about four minutes. A zoo spokesperson said the behavior is called an “alert circle” and said it is “intended to protect the young — and the entire herd — from threats.”
In downtown San Diego, the earthquake prompted temporary evacuations of major government buildings.
Dozens of San Diego city workers stood outside and talked on the City Hall concourse after being ordered to evacuate the 13-story City Administration Building, opened in 1965. City officials later announced the building would be closed for the remainder of the day for inspections. However, there were no immediate reports of building damage, and the assessments were being done “out of an abundance of caution.” Monday afternoon’s City Council meeting — a hotly anticipated one on the city’s controversial new trash pickup fee, with dozens of public speakers expected — was relocated to the San Diego Civic Theatre. It was not available to view online or on television.
Nearby, the grand 1938 building that houses county administrative offices was also briefly evacuated, but by 11:30 a.m. it was back to business as usual. The quake also produced shaking felt on the 14th floor of the federal courthouse.
The San Diego Museum of Art in Balboa Park briefly closed to perform a damage and safety check. It has since reopened.
Tijuana City Hall closed for the rest of the day as a precaution. Damage was found in an underground parking lot, and city workers were inspecting the site, officials said. The building was expected to reopen Tuesday.
County officials asked people to call 211 to report any damage from the earthquake.
They said the event serves as a reminder for residents to focus on preparing for earthquakes, including signing up for emergency notifications.
They also suggested residents put together a kit with water, nonperishable food, first-aid supplies, emergency cash and important documents. Kits also should include blankets or sleeping bags, flashlights with batteries, medication, a radio and masks.
Staff writers Kelly Davis, David Garrick, Alex Riggins, Alexandra Mendoza and Jemma Stephenson contributed to this report.