It was followed within three hours by about a half-dozen smaller quakes between magnitude-3.0 and magnitude-3.5 in the same rural area near Sequoia National Park, about 180 miles northeast of Los Angeles.
Inyo County sheriff's dispatcher Faith Felton says she felt a slight tremor during the strongest quake. No damages or injuries have been reported.
U.S. Geological Survey geophysicist Randy Baldwin says a couple of quakes with magnitudes of about 5.4 have occurred in the area in recent years.