San Francisco Bay Area shakes from magnitude 5.1 earthquake
On Tuesday, the San Francisco Bay Area was rocked by the biggest earthquake in the area in eight years, a magnitude 5.1 tremor that shook buildings and terrified residents.
No injuries or property loss were reported right away.
The earthquake occurred at 11:42 a.m. local time, about 12 miles east of San Jose, and at a depth of roughly 4 miles, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Location: roughly 40 miles southeast of San Francisco’s downtown.
According to USGS records and seismologist Lucy Jones, this earthquake was the strongest to hit the Bay Area in many years. In 2014, a 6.0-magnitude earthquake struck near Napa, California.
Jones told that the quake occurred on the Calaveras fault, which is a branch of the San Andreas fault line and one of eight major faults in the Bay Area.
Jones remarked that the Calaveras fault is one that often experiences weaker tremors.
A National Weather Service employee in Monterey reported feeling the tremors in the Bay Area. Following a brief stop, BART and Caltrain trains resumed service, albeit at slower speeds, as announced via Twitter.
On Twitter, Santa Cruz County reported that there were no reports of serious damage as a result of the quake. The county reports that all schools were unharmed and that classes can resume as usual.
According to the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES), close to 100,000 people reported receiving an earthquake warning before the shaking began.
Those living closest to the epicenter had as little as two seconds’ warning, while those in San Francisco had as much as eighteen.
Mayor Rich Constantine of Morgan Hill, a city near San Jose, said he was cooking when the “long and steady” quake hit.
Everything was shaking and we lost a frame in the house, but there was no damage, he claimed.
Five minutes after the original quake, USGS reported a 3.1 aftershock.
The magnitude 6.9 Loma Prieta earthquake hit the Santa Cruz Mountains on October 17, 1989, just as the World Series was about to begin in San Francisco. Tuesday’s earthquake occurred a week after the 33rd anniversary of that quake. There were 62 fatalities and billions of dollars in damage as a result of the earthquake.
