Did you feel it? Small-magnitude earthquake rattles Northern California

A small earthquake rattled Northern California on Friday evening when a magnitude 4.2 temblor shook in Butte County.

The quake struck at 6:41 p.m. about 5 miles southeast of the city of Oroville and 58 miles north of Sacramento, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The earthquake’s epicenter was a quarter-mile deep and just south of Lake Oroville State Recreation Area, seismologists reported.

By Saturday morning, nearly 500 responses were sent to the USGS’ “Did You Feel It?” webpage with some users reporting weak to light shaking in Oroville, Yuba City and some parts of Placer County.

There were no reports of damage or injuries.

The USGS reported on social media that the earthquake was “too small to trigger the delivery of a ShakeAlert-powered alerts to cellphones.”

ShakeAlert is the public earthquake warning system now in place in portions of California, Oregon and Washington. The system detects earthquakes, assesses their hazard and notifies people before shaking starts via locations away from the quake’s epicenter.

ShakeAlert has been in the works since 2006. California joined the effort in 2013 charging the state Office of Emergency Services to work with USGS to develop its own early warning system. California has since dedicated more than $40 million toward earthquake early warning, according to the USGS.

ShakeAlerts are automatically sent to cellphones but users can download the MyShake app to receive emergency alerts and get more information.

This story was originally published July 22, 2022 at 7:29 PM.