It was a startling few moments for Jared Krause, and his girlfriend.
"My girlfriend and I were both sitting in the living room, and the house started shaking," said Krause. "We looked at each other, we both stood up to get out of the house It was 10 or 15 seconds, and the shaking stopped."
The couple was rattled by a magnitude 2.8 earthquake last Monday night.
It was felt in many parts of Ventura County, as well as areas in Santa Barbara and Los Angeles Counties.
Dozens of small earthquakes have rattled the Ojai and Santa Paula areas during the last few weeks, with the largest a magnitude 4.0. Fortunately, there are no reports of injuries or damage.
Seismologists now say there have been two different earthquake swarms, focused on two different faults in the Ojai Valley area:
Dr. Ralph Archuleta is a longtime UC Santa Barbara seismologist.
"You're always a little bit nervous when you see a cluster of earthquakes occurring over a small period of time, because it shows that part of the fault is active," said Archuleta.
The researcher says while many people equate California earthquakes with the San Andreas Fault, the reality is Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties have a number of other lesser known, but potentially dangerous ones.
Archuleta says the county has been the epicenter of two distinctive quake swarms in the last few weeks, involving two different fault zones.
The seismologist says the first swarm of quakes, in February were centered northwest of Santa Paula. That first swarm included a magnitude 4.0 quake, which was felt from Santa Barbara to Orange Counties. But again, the good news was there were no injures reported, as well as no damage.
Archuleta says the second, more recent swarm was centered in a lesser known fault zone. He says while the swarms have eased, the quakes are a reminder we live in earthquake country, and need to be prepared.
One of the biggest things you can do in addition to making sure your home, and family are quake ready is downloading the free My Shake phone app.
If a quake occurs, depending on how close it is to you the app can give you seconds, to tens of seconds to take safety precautions liking getting under a desk, or table.
