STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
If you were anywhere in Los Angeles or the area during lunchtime yesterday, you likely felt a shake. At ESPN's LA studios, journalist Malika Andrews was live on the air.
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MALIKA ANDREWS: As we have a bit of an earthquake here in Los Angeles. So we're just going to make sure that our studio lights - everything stays safe. Everything's shaking.
INSKEEP: The epicenter of the 4.4 quake was just south of Los Angeles' Highland Park neighborhood.
RICHARD ALLEN: This was not a particularly large earthquake. But obviously, it was felt by a lot of people across Los Angeles.
INSKEEP: That's Richard Allen, the director of the UC Berkeley Seismology Lab, who says several factors determine how and when you feel an earthquake.
ALLEN: Whether it be the Los Angeles Basin or in the Bay Area, if you're on one of those fairly flat areas, then you're in a sedimentary basin. And that means that you're often on unconsolidated soils. And these soft soils - they amplify the ground shaking.
INSKEEP: Softer soils slow down the shockwaves, which makes the effects stronger and last longer.
ALLEN: It's a bit of a double whammy.
INSKEEP: Even the kind of building you're in can affect how you feel the earthquake.
ALLEN: So if you're in a tall building, particularly for the larger magnitude earthquakes, it can really oscillate back and forth, whereas a short building will only amplify the ground shaking a little bit.
INSKEEP: Wow. I'm getting disoriented just thinking about this. The type of shaking you experience, whether it's sudden or slow, can be determined by how far away you are from the epicenter.
ALLEN: If it's very sort of shuddery, then you know it's very close by. If it's kind of much more sort of oscillations, you know that it's further away.
INSKEEP: Earthquake news on NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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