Malibu quake is 14th earthquake sequence of magnitude 4.0 this year - the most since 1988

MALIBU, Calif. (KABC) -- A 4.7 magnitude earthquake struck the Malibu area Thursday, making it the 14th earthquake sequence of magnitude 4.0 in Southern California this year - the most since 1988.

"We've had it now for a few years, but we're kind of getting a few of these alerts now, so people are getting used to it," said Dr. Allen Husker, a seismologist at Caltech.

While many people believe smaller earthquakes tend to reduce the odds of a big one, Husker says it doesn't quite work that way.

"There's no way, unfortunately, to alleviate the big one," he said. "Really, the big ones are so much bigger that you would need hundreds or thousands of these small ones really to equate kind of like that big one, and we just don't ... there's not enough."

The preponderance of smaller earthquakes may do just the opposite.

Husker said seismic modeling shows Southern California is overdue for "the big one," and smaller quakes tend to point toward bigger ones.

"Each earthquake slightly increases the chance of a future earthquake that's about the same magnitude or larger," he said.

Thursday's earthquake occurred closest to the Malibu fault, but was also near the Anacapa fault. Earthquakes below magnitude 5.0 are too small to be definitively associated with large faults that are mapped at the earth's surface.

The quake struck around 7:28 a.m. at a depth of nearly six miles. It originally registered as a 5.1, but was quickly downgraded. Several aftershocks rumbled the area over the following hour, including a 3.4 around 8:40 a.m.

No reports of injuries or other damage were reported. Preparation, of course, should always be your plan for when a major earthquake hits.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.