3 Rare Quakes Rattle Arizona

A councilwoman in Tempe, Ariz., thought her dog fell off the bed Sunday night—but the cause of the rumble and thud she heard turned out to be more earthshaking than that. At least three earthquakes startled the Grand Canyon State Sunday night, with the largest weighing in at a 4.1 magnitude, the Arizona Republic reports. The tremors, a relatively rare occurrence in Arizona, were all near Black Canyon City, about 45 miles north of Phoenix, notes CNN.

Even though a US Geological Survey rep says the 4.1 quake was "relatively small," two things made it stand out, per the Republic: the fact that a 3.2-magnitude temblor came right before it, and that the quakes hit close to the Earth's surface. "This is definitely not common," he says. (Meanwhile, the Bay Area has been shaken by 408 quakes in two weeks.)