Magnitude 4.1 quake shakes central California; over 1,000 reports filed

A magnitude 4.1 earthquake was reported in central California, with more than 1,000 people saying they felt shaking, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS).

The earthquake struck at 9:54 a.m. Pacific Time on Tuesday and was centered north of San Luis Obispo, the USGS said. It occurred at a shallow depth of about 3 miles. The epicenter was located 4.6 miles west of Templeton and 8 miles southwest of Paso Robles.

More than 1,000 felt reports were submitted to the USGS website following the earthquake. People near the epicenter described moderate shaking, while weak to light shaking was reported as far south as Santa Maria and Lompoc.

At least 10 aftershocks have been recorded, most of them small, with the largest measuring magnitude 2.3, according to the USGS.

The region around San Luis Obispo, Paso Robles, and Templeton is crisscrossed by several smaller faults connected to the larger San Andreas system. These local faults regularly produce small to moderate earthquakes, often at shallow depths, which can be widely felt even when magnitudes are modest.

Earthquakes in this part of California are typically the result of the Pacific Plate sliding past the North American Plate, a process known as strike-slip faulting.