Magnitude 3.4 earthquake hits Huntington Beach, rattling nerves

A magnitude 3.4 earthquake shook Huntington Beach on Friday night, rattling some nerves.

The earthquake struck at 9:52 p.m., with an epicenter just east of Newland Elementary School. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, there was light shaking at the epicenter as defined by the Modified Mercalli Intensity Scale, with the shaking intense enough to be felt indoors by many — feeling perhaps like a heavy truck striking a building.

“That was crazy. ... Our building felt like a semi truck ran into it,� one user wrote on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.

No significant damage had been reported as of late Friday night.

Light shaking was also felt in Newport Beach, Costa Mesa, Fountain Valley and Garden Grove, the USGS said.

Huntington Beach sits within the Newport-Inglewood fault zone, which extends on land for some 46 miles between Culver City and Newport Beach.

The most destructive earthquake to hit the area in modern times was a magnitude 6.4 that struck in 1933. Often referred to as the Long Beach earthquake, its epicenter was actually just offshore of Huntington Beach and ruptured about nine miles of fault, all beneath the surface.

That earthquake resulted in at least 120 deaths, the deadliest in modern Southern California history.

People who live near the area of the earthquake can report what they felt to the USGS.