'That Was Intense': Researchers at Caltech React to Southern California Earthquake

Researchers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) reacted to a 4.4-magnitude earthquake hitting Pasadena, California, on Monday, August 12.

Footage filmed and posted to X by user @CommuterMoe, a staff member at Caltech, shows people reacting to the earthquake moments after it was felt on the Caltech campus in Pasadena on Monday morning. People are seen gathering around monitors displaying the earthquake updates, which say “light shaking expected.”

Caltech, a private research institution, is home to a Seismological Laboratory that serves as a “focal point for earthquake information in Southern California and the world.” According to a local news report, shaking was reported throughout Los Angeles. Credit: @CommuterMoe via Storyful

Video transcript

Yes.

How big was that one?

There's no way.

No, no, it's right next door.

That hit exactly at the same point.

Highland Park.

Good morning.

Everyone in case anybody was sleeping, light shaking, expected.

4.7.

It says 4.7 here.

Highland Park near downtown.

This is my first quake in seismology.

It's a, it's a big day.

Yeah, that was, I felt like a truck hit the building.

That was a good one.