Magnitude 3 earthquake strikes Malibu, the latest to rattle the area

LOS ANGELES — A magnitude 3 earthquake occurred just north of Malibu Saturday afternoon, the latest in a cluster of temblors reported over the last week and a half.

The latest earthquake occurred at 2:15 p.m. Saturday, with an epicenter along Kanan Dume Road, about 3.6 miles north of Point Dume.

Saturday’s event was the sixth earthquake of magnitude 3 or higher since a magnitude 4.7 earthquake in the same area was widely felt across Southern California on Sept. 12.

Only “weak” shaking was felt in the area closest to Saturday’s epicenter, which included Zuma Beach and Point Dume State Beach in Malibu, as defined by the Modified Mercalli Intensity Scale, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. That intensity of shaking is so mild that many people don’t recognize it as an earthquake. If they do, the vibrations felt might be similar to the passing of a truck.

This has been an unusually active year for moderate earthquakes in Southern California. The Sept. 12 earthquake north of Malibu was part of the 14th seismic sequence this year in Southern California with at least one magnitude 4 or higher earthquake, seismologist Lucy Jones, a California Institute of Technology research associate, said earlier this month.

That broke a record for the last 65 years. Over that time period, Jones said, there were an average of eight to 10 independent sequences of earthquakes annually that included at least one temblor of magnitude 4 or greater.

In some years, there were just one or two of those earthquake sequences; the highest previous tally was 13 in 1988.

The observation is not necessarily an indication that a large, damaging earthquake is around the corner, scientists said.

Some researchers have offered dueling theories — some say earthquake activity increases in a region before a large earthquake, others say seismic activity decreases before a large jolt.

So the recent activity does not offer any hint of when the next large, destructive temblor will occur, said Susan Hough, a U.S. Geological Survey seismologist, earlier this month.