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 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.
Brawley is located in the Brawley Fault Zone an offshoot of faults connected to the Imperial Fault Zone, which links to the San Andreas Fault. According to the Southern California Earthquake Data Center, the fault zone is “prone to earthquake swarms.”
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