A swarm of earthquakes rattled Southern California's Imperial County on Saturday, with the largest reported temblor registering at a magnitude of 4.5, according to the United States Geological Survey.
The earthquakes first started at around 4:15 p.m., about 2.5 miles northwest of Brawley, a city located south of the Salton Sea, approximately 30 miles from the U.S.-Mexico border in Calexico and nearly 130 miles east of San Diego.
The estimated center of a 4.5 magnitude earthquake that struck near Brawley, in Southern California's Imperial County, on Saturday, May 9, 2026. United States Geological Survey
Dozens of similarly-sized quakes followed it until about 7:20 p.m., when the [4.5-magnitude temblor struck](https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/ci41460512/executive) about a mile northwest of Brawley. Most of the earthquakes registered in the surrounding area were said to be under a 2.0 magnitude, while some of the larger instances registered as magnitude 4.0, magnitude 3.6 and magnitude 3.1.
Sixteen quakes have registered above magnitude 2.5, the USGS reported.
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