LOS ANGELES - A MODERATE 4.5-magnitude earthquake rattled southern California on Thursday but there were no reports of casualties or damage, officials said.

The quake, initially measured at 5.0, was centred near the town of San Bernadino, some 88km east of Los Angeles at a depth of 13.8km, the United States Geological Survey said.

The quake was felt across the region, shuddering buildings across Los Angeles, witnesses said.

Callers to the KCAL9 local television network reported a loud rumbling noise shortly before the quake which knocked objects from shelves and lasted for several seconds.

'We've had earthquakes before but I've never seen my TV roll across the room,' one shaken resident, Marlene Rocha, told KCAL9.

Another caller to the station described a noise like a 'loud explosion' before 'everything started shaking.'

Michael Elias, a grocery store clerk in the town of Rancho Cucamonga, west of San Bernardino, told an AFP reporter he had 'felt a small jolt followed by a big one.'

'I ran outside, when I figured out it was an earthquake,' Mr Elias said. 'All the liquor bottles started shaking but none fell of the shelves.

The temblor came roughly six months after a 5.4 earthquake jolted Los Angeles in July, the most powerful seismic shock to rock the city in 14 years.

Geologists say an earthquake capable of causing widespread destruction is 99 per cent certain of hitting California within the next 30 years.

A study published last year said a 7.8 magnitude quake could kill 1,800 people, injure 50,000 more and damage 300,000 buildings.

A 6.7 earthquake in Los Angeles in 1994 left at least 60 people dead and caused an estimated US$10 billion (S$14.5 billion) in damage, while a 6.9 quake in San Francisco in 1989 claimed 67 lives. -- AP