Rural Southern California was rocked by swarm of earthquakes including one that was 5.3-magnitude

  • A rural area of Southern California was hit by a swarm of earthquakes Saturday morning.

  • The largest was a 5.3-magnitude quake, according to the US Geological Survey.

  • A seismologist on Twitter said Imperial Valley is known to have earthquake swarms.

  • See more stories on Insider's business page.

A swarm of 152 earthquakes were felt Saturday morning in California's Imperial Valley, a rural area about two hours east of San Diego, according to CNN.

The largest of the swarm was of a 5.3-magnitude earthquake that struck at 10:55 a.m. near the town of Calipatria, and was felt as far away as Los Angeles, according to the US Geological Survey.

There were no reports of injuries or damage caused by the earthquakes.

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The largest of the quakes was felt as far away as Los Angeles. US Geological Survey

"The Imperial County Fire Department and Office of Emergency Services is currently monitoring and assessing recent earthquake activity in our region," Imperial County tweeted Saturday. "There has not been any report of damages yet and our crews are conducting damage assessments."

Seismologist Dr. Lucy Jones wrote on Twitter that earthquakes in the Imperial Valley often come in swarms.

Lilia Gonzales, 40, told the Los Angeles Times that she felt the earthquake at her home in Brawley, and at first thought it was her kids fighting. When she realized it was an earthquake, she said she wasn't worried.

"It was nothing out of the ordinary for us," she said. "I could hear my house shaking."

Still the 5.3-magnitude earthquake was somewhat rare.

California and Nevada have an average of five earthquakes between 5.0 and 6.0 magnitude each year, according to the LA Times.

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