5.2 Earthquake Shakes Up SF Bay Area

Joe Kaz wrote in (along with a number of other concerned folks): "There was a 5.2 Earthquake in Gilroy, CA, 70 miles south of San Francisco. The epicenter was 4.7 miles below surface. It lasted for about 10 seconds, and it did seem like a long time. Everything shook for a while, and it was a little scary. No reports of damage yet. Hope everyone is ok." I've got a report from my sisters father-in-law in gilroy (the epicenter) and he barely noticed it. Nate Oostendorp noted that "My stereo shook a little" in Walnut Creek. The SF Gate story on the quake notes that there are some phones out in some small parts of San Jose. The usgs has an event monitoring page if you are interested.

Comments

It was felt at the hockey game

[Erbo]

Fox Sports Net broadcasters John Kelly and Peter McNab sure felt that one from the broadcast booth of the Compaq Center (soon to be the "HP Pavilion") in San Jose, where the Colorado Avalanche were dueling with the San Jose Sharks in a hotly-contested playoff game (Game 6, Sharks led series 3-2).

The quake hit in the 3rd period, while the Avs and Sharks were tied 1-1 (both goals having come in the 2nd, within 30 seconds of one another). It may have jolted the announcers, but it sure didn't faze goaltenders Evgeni Nabokov or Patrick Roy, who never let anything through in that period. The game was finally decided in OT, on a goal by Avs forward Peter "The Great" Forsberg, winning the game 2-1 and sending the series back to Pepsi Center in Denver for Game 7.

GO AVS!

Yup, I felt it too

[Eugenia Loli]

I am in Foster City, 75 km away from the Epicenter. Yup, I felt it. First thing I did was to shout "Sweetieeee, wake up!" to my husband who has *just* gone to sleep. But it only lasted for 10 secs or so, so it was not too bad.

In Greece I've seen worse that this quake.

And in fact, I was feeling like it would be a quake today. In Greece, (older) people have three things to undedify earthquakes that are going to happen in the next few hours:
1. If the climate is unsusally dryly hot and it feels weird to your.. ears (there is an unusual sound of silence, a low pitch sound that masks the other small sounds). It is a different sort of heat. It is like humid heat, but very dry at the same time. I can't explain it better in words, sorry.
2. If for some weird reason, while you just sit somewhere fine and daddy, your ear just "blocks", like it does when water gets inside when you are in the bath or something.
3. If the dogs just bark all day, and no matter what you do to them, they just don't stop barking.

At least these are the ways older people in Greece get a clue about nature's surprises.