Earthquake, Aftershocks Rumble Across Southern California

(June 15) -- A magnitude-5.7 earthquake shook the U.S.-Mexico border area Monday night, the largest of dozens of quakes that rattled Southern California and briefly halted a San Diego Padres game, according to reports. No major damage was reported.

The largest temblor, recorded at 9:26 p.m. PDT, was centered five miles southeast of Ocotillo in San Diego County and about 85 miles east of San Diego. It could be felt north throughout the Los Angeles County area, the Los Angeles Times reported.

More than 100 smaller aftershocks were recorded after Monday's quake, The Associated Press reported, with the largest registering a magnitude of 4.5.

Aftermath of earthquake in Southern California

DusterAmaranth, Twitter

The temblor knocked items off the shelves of this store in Southern California, as captured by this Twitter user.

The quakes were all aftershocks of a magnitude-7.2 earthquake that hit Mexico's Baja California peninsula and shook Southern California in early April, killing at least one person and causing significant damage, experts said.

Egill Hauksson, a seismologist at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, said the center of Monday's quake was in the same zone as the April earthquake, the AP reported.

"Aftershocks can go on for months and years," he said.

Hauksson said a 5.7-magnitude earthquake "could break windows, it could throw things on the floor, it could create cracks on the wall, but we don't expect things to collapse."

There were no reports of significant damage, according to officials in San Diego and Imperial counties.

"As soon as it hit, my wife said, 'Grab the baby.' My daughter ran out to the backyard," Louis Fuentes, chairman of the Imperial County Board of Supervisors, told the AP. He had been in his garage in Calexico, 30 miles east of the epicenter. "It thumped really hard."

Fuentes and others in the area said objects shook and swayed but nothing fell.

"All the lamps, the liquor bottles and the TV hanging from the ceiling shook, but nothing dropped," Marina Garcia, who works at the Burgers and Beer restaurant in El Centro, about 30 miles east of Ocotillo, told the AP.

The San Diego Padres game against the Toronto Blue Jays was stopped for a few minutes, as Petco Park swayed during the quake. The announcer appealed for calm, and the crowd cheered.

Thomas Jordan, director of the Southern California Earthquake Center at the University of Southern California, told the Los Angeles Times that the fault where the April quake struck has been very active recently. "It's been especially rich at the north end of the fault," he said, adding that he did not find Monday's swarm of quakes that unusual.