Magnitude 4.1 quake rattles southern California on New Year's Day

Jan. 1 (UPI) -- A magnitude 4.1 offshore earthquake rattled southern California on New Year's Day, seismologists reported.

The temblor, which struck at 8:27 a.m. local time, was centered in the Pacific Ocean 12 miles south of Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif., and 16 miles southwest of downtown Long Beach at a depth of just over 7 miles, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

Weak shaking from the quake was felt along the California coast in Los Angeles and Orange counties, the Los Angeles Times reported.

There were no immediate reports of injuries or damages.

The quake came on the same day as a major, 7.5-magnitude quake in Japan triggered tsunami warnings, but are unrelated, a noted seismologist said.

"Completely unrelated to Japan, SoCal just had a M4.1 offshore from Palos Verdes," Lucy Jones, founder of the Dr. Lucy Jones Center for Science & Society, wrote on X. "Not near any known fault. Way too small to even talk about tsunamis. Japan's M7.5 is 100,000 times bigger than a M4."