A 4.3-magnitude earthquake occurred Tuesday evening near Lake Pillsbury, with residents on the other side of the county reporting that they felt the temblor.

The quake occurred at 8:49 p.m., according to the US Geological Survey.

Its epicenter was located six miles north of Lake Pillsbury, 16 miles southwest of Alder Springs and 22 miles east northeast of Willits. The US Geological Survey said it was recorded at a depth of 9.1 miles.

The quake was immediately preceded by two 2.9-magnitude earthquakes - one at 8:44 p.m., located on the same epicenter as the big quake but at a depth of 7.1 miles, and the second at 8:45 p.m., at a depth of 4.8 miles but located seven miles north of Lake Pillsbury.

At 9:17 p.m. a 2.4-magnitude quake occurred seven miles north of Lake Pillsbury, followed at 10:14 p.m. by a 2.8-magnitude quake six miles north of Lake Pillsbury, US Geological Survey records showed.

Although quakes measuring in magnitude above 3.0 are more common in the south county area near The Geysers geothermal steamfield, quakes in the Lake Pillsbury area are less frequent.

However, in recent years there have been some sizable quakes near Lake Pillsbury, including a 4.8-magnitude quake in April of 2007 that a seismologist said was the largest there in about 30 years, as Lake County News has reported.

The most recent moderately sized quake reported in the area occurred last August and measured 3.6 in magnitude, according to Lake County News records.

Late on Tuesday evening some area residents posted on Lake County News' Facebook page that they had felt the quake, although the US Geological Survey hadn't received any shake reports by that point.