Magnitude-5.3 earthquake rattles Los Angeles, southern California

Doyle Rice | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption Magnitude 5.3 quake strikes off Southern California coast An earthquake with a magnitude of 5.3 struck off the coast of Southern California, but only minor damage has been reported on one of the Channel Islands. (April 5)

A magnitude-5.3 earthquake rattled southern California on Thursday, shaking buildings in the Los Angeles area.

The quake was centered in the Pacific Ocean, some 35 miles southeast of Channel Islands Beach, Calif., the U.S. Geological Survey said.

There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.

At the USA TODAY bureau in west Los Angeles, the earthquake started slowly as a rolling motion. The quake wasn’t strong enough, however, to cause items to fall off desks.

The quake struck around 12:30 p.m. and lasted about 10 seconds, the Ventura County Star reported.

Sgt. Eric Buschow, public information officer for the Ventura County Sheriff's Office, told the Los Angeles Times that the office received no reports of significant injuries or damage and no influx of 911 calls.

The Los Angeles area experiences quakes of this magnitude on average about once a year, John Vidale, director of the Southern California Earthquake Center at USC, told the Times.

Thursday's earthquake is one of the biggest to hit southern California since a magnitude-5.2 quake in Borrego Springs in June 2016, the Southern California Seismic Network said.

The biggest quake in California in the past several years was a 6.0 that hit the Napa area in August 2014. That quake killed one person and injured 200.