A 4.4 earthquake has just hit Los Angeles today May 1 2009 centered in Westlake Village. LALATE has today’s earthquake detail.

The quake hit just after 6 pm local time, centered 6 km SW of Westlake Village. But the quake with only a 9 km depth could be felt substantially through the San Fernando Valley.

Here is USGS data just in:

Magnitude 4.4 – local magnitude (ML)
Time Friday, May 1, 2009 at 6:11:13 PM (PDT)
Saturday, May 2, 2009 at 1:11:13 (UTC)
Distance from Westlake Village, CA – 9 km (6 miles) SW (224 degrees)
Thousand Oaks, CA – 12 km (7 miles) S (186 degrees)
Malibu, CA – 12 km (7 miles) WNW (300 degrees)
Casa Conejo, CA – 13 km (8 miles) SSE (156 degrees)
Los Angeles Civic Center, CA – 59 km (37 miles) W (273 degrees)
Coordinates 34 deg. 5.0 min. N (34.083N), 118 deg. 53.3 min. W (118.889W)
Depth 9 km (5.6 miles)

LALATE in Santa Monica didn’t feel the earthquake. But while on Twitter, LALATE noticed Billy Bush tweets from Encino: “Just felt a good rumble in encino CA…must be an earthquake. Rocked the house.”

In fact some Los Angeles area residents were confused by the sudden surge of Tweets by earthquakes on Twitter with one writing:

Tell meh whyy Earthquake is the 5th Trending Topic.

Apparently he didn’t feel it.