A magnitude 4.6 earthquake struck Southern California northwest of Los Angeles on Friday, rattling a wide area around the nation's second-most populous city, the US Geological Survey (USGS) said. But there were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.

According to the USGS, the quake was centered about 9 miles (14.5 km) west of Thousand Oaks, a community in the coastal foothills about 40 miles northwest of downtown LA.

The tremor was recorded at a magnitude of 5.1 but was downgraded later by the USGS to 4.6.

A crowd-sourced "Did You Feel It?" map posted online by the USGS showed that weak-to-light shaking was detected by residents all around Los Angeles, with scattered reports of faint ground movement as far north as Bakersfield and as far south as San Diego.

Earthquakes of that size are commonplace in seismically active California and generally cause little or no property damage