By NBCSanDiego.com and news services
Dozens of small to moderate earthquakes rattled Southern California on Sunday, shaking an area from rural Imperial County to the San Diego coast and north into the Coachella Valley.
The largest quake, magnitude 5.3, struck at 12:31 p.m. about three miles north-northwest of the small Imperial County farming town of Brawley, according to Paul Caruso, a geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey. It was followed minutes later by a 4.9 magnitude quake.
The first quake was a magnitude 3.9 that hit at 10:02 a.m. It was followed by a 3.4 quake about 90 seconds later in the same area near the southern end of the Salton Sea. Magnitude 2.2 and 2.0 quakes followed within six minutes of the first shock.
Read the story at NBC 7 San Diego
The USGS says at least 25 aftershocks of struck the same approximate epicenter about 16 miles north of El Centro.
Some shaking was felt on the coast in Del Mar, some 120 miles from the epicenter, as well as in southern Orange County and parts of northern Mexico.
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An Imperial County sheriff's dispatcher said there were no reports of damage or injuries.
Scientists aren't yet sure what fault the quake cluster was on but it was near the 800-mile San Andreas Fault, Caruso said.
Residents across San Diego County reported feeling the quakes in places including downtown San Diego, Mission Valley, Santee and Chula Vista. No injuries were reported.
San Diego State University geology expert Pat Abbott told NBC 7 San Diego that Sunday?s earthquakes were in the middle of the Brawley Seismic Zone, famous for swarms of quakes. He said he expected aftershocks.
?[The Brawley Seismic Zone] is a broad zone with lots of little faults,? Abbott explained.
?This area has clearly activated. We will likely experience swarms of 3, 4 and 5-magnitude [earthquakes] but they are not likely to increase in intensity. Of course, there are no guarantees on this, but history says they likely won?t get bigger ? that we will experience more of the same or smaller quakes,? he added.?
NBCSanDiego.com and The Associated Press contributed to this story.
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