BANDON, Ore. — The National Earthquake Information Center in Golden, Colorado, says an earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.0 off the Oregon coast caused no reported damage and only a smattering of reports from people who felt it as a weak jolt.

The shallow quake was recorded at 7:31 p.m. PST (0331 GMT) Tuesday more than 240 kilometres west of southern Oregon. It did not generate a tsunami.

Within about an hour, the information centre's website recorded 39 reports of people who reported feeling the quake. Most were in northern California and southern Oregon and characterized it as "weak" or "barely felt."

U.S. Geological Survey geophysicist Dale Grant told The Associated Press in a telephone interview that the quake occurred in a seismically active area and was "not uncommon at all."

In his words, "These are the ones we like -- nobody gets hurt and there's no damage."