A magnitude 2.6 earthquake struck Newport Beach on Wednesday afternoon, resulting in weak shaking in Orange County.

The epicenter of the quake, just southeast of Costa Mesa, was underneath Mariners Park. Weak shaking was felt in Irvine, Santa Ana, Huntington Beach, Garden Grove, Tustin, and Fountain Valley, according to people who reported the shaking to the U.S. Geological Survey’s Did You Feel It? website. The earthquake struck at 1:46 p.m. and occurred near mapped traces of the Newport-Inglewood/Rose Canyon fault zone. In Santa Ana, one person felt the earthquake as starting with the slowest of rumbles, then a quick jolt.

The Newport-Inglewood fault has long been considered one of Southern California’s top seismic danger zones because it runs under some of the region’s most densely populated areas, from the Westside of Los Angeles to the Orange County coast.

The last major quake on that fault occurred in 1933 — the magnitude 6.4 Long Beach earthquake. That temblor — the deadliest in modern Southern California history — resulted in “very strong” shaking, or level 7 on the Modified Mercalli Intensity Scale, in Long Beach, Huntington Beach and Compton.

The 1933 quake left nearly 120 dead and caused $40 million in property damage.

Scientists have said that recent observations suggest earthquakes as large as magnitudes 6.8 to 7.5 have struck the Newport-Inglewood/Rose Canyon fault system, which stretches from the border of Beverly Hills and Los Angeles through Long Beach and the Orange County coast to downtown San Diego.

Read More Here