(February 4, 2006, updated) -- A earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 2.9 centered roughly 1 km east of Lakewood got LB's attention at 6:37:59 p.m. tonight (Feb. 4).

The light temblor was felt throughout Long Beach and an area from the southbay through central OC.

In ELB, it was a clean, sharp jolt of fairly low intensity...although our cat stayed under the bed for several hours. [Additional reports below.]

Within ten minutes, LBReport.com had the quake's basic information posted on our front page (location, preliminary magnitude by USGS). [When local news happens, always check with LBReport.com's front page at www.lbreport.com].

Here are salient details from the So. California Earthquake Center:

The magnitude 2.9 event occurred 1 km (0 miles) E (81 degrees) of Lakewood, CA. The hypocentral depth was 19 km (12 miles). Coordinates 33 deg. 51.6 min. N (33.861N), 118 deg. 7.1 min. W (118.119W). [Just west of Woodruff Ave., just north of South St.] Depth 18.8 km (11.7 miles)

[update] A Lakewood reader, just blocks from the epicenter, emailed LBReport.com that it felt "like a sonic boom." A Signal Hill reader reported light shaking in Signal Hill (area Willow/Walnut). "Our dog put her ears back and barked a couple of times, then went to Daddy’s knee to be petted and told good girl it's okay."

By 9:00 p.m., USGS had received emailed reports from 70 zip codes from the southbay through parts of OC...with 809 internet users telling USGS' website (at that time, it's grown since) that they experienced the light temblor.

148 people in Lakewood zipcodes 90712, 90713 and 90715 (148 to 9:00 p.m.) described the shaking as light.

Zip code 90808 had the largest number of LB respondents (84) with 90815 second (64); both reported light shaking. LB zips 90802, 90803, 90804, 90805, 90806, 90807, 90810, 90813 and 90814 also generated responses, as did Signal Hill (9), all reporting light or weak shaking.

The Southern California Earthquake Center also posted seismographs of various waveforms generated by the quake. We have no idea what the wave forms mean but they are cool to view. Source: Southern CA Earthquake Center: