QUAKES SHAKE CALIFORNIA'S SIERRA NEVADA

A series of earthquakes hit the southeast edge of the Sierra Nevada on Saturday, the largest measuring 4.1 on the Richter scale, a spokesman for the California Institute of Technology said.

No injuries were reported and no damage estimates were available."It shook some of the little houses a bit. But I was in this cement building, and it didn't shake nothing in here," said Kevin Lyster, a truck driver who was at the Little Lake Hotel.

The 4.1 quake hit at 2:14 p.m. about 12 miles northeast of Little Lake, a community near the China Lake naval weapons station, about 125 miles north of Los Angeles, said Caltech spokesman Robert Finn.

That temblor was followed by "a couple dozen" and the most intense of those was a 3.4-magnitude tremor at 2:26 p.m.

Finn said the area is known for "fairly intense swarms of earthquakes."

The Richter scale is a gauge of the energy released by an earthquake, as measured by the ground motion recorded on a seismograph.

An earthquake of 3.5 on the Richter scale can cause slight damage; a 4 causes considerable damage. An 8 is is a "great" quake, capable of tremendous damage.