Community Corner

3.4 Quake Hits Northern Peninsula on Monday

Brief shudder shook buildings just before 3 p.m.

An auto-generated report from the US Geological Survey confirms what everyone felt: a brief but noisy earthquake hit the Peninsula Monday afternoon.

According to initial readings from the USGS, a 3.8-magnitude quake struck at 2:57 p.m. on Sweeney Ridge, just two miles southwest of San Bruno and about eight miles from San Mateo. The quake's magnitude was later downgraded to 3.4.

Luckily, the quake was so brief – only a few seconds – that it had little opportunity to knock things over. No damage was immediately reported in San Mateo.

Find out what's happening in San Mateowith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The quake was followed at 3 p.m. by a second, smaller earthquake with a magnitude of 1.5. That quake was centered about two miles southwest of San Bruno and three miles southeast of Pacifica.

BART stopped its trains briefly to inspect the tracks after the first earthquake. Trains were running at normal speeds again Monday afternoon, but 10-minute delays reported system-wide. Caltrain service was not affected, and operations were not altered at San Francisco International Airport.

Find out what's happening in San Mateowith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The first quake was felt in many parts of the Peninsula, San Francisco and Oakland. Thom Ball, library manager of the Pacifica Sharp Park Library, said he felt it. "There was a sharp jolt that was preceded by a rumbling noise. That was it," Ball said. "No books fell off the shelves. No lights went off. We all just felt it," he said. Everyone seemed calm afterward, Ball said.

Several aftershocks occurred in the same area throughout the evening, including a magnitude-2.4 tremor at 4:55 p.m. and a magnitude-2.2 event at 8:35 p.m, both of which were centered two miles southeast of Pacifica.

By some coincidence, today is the 105th anniversary of the Great Earthquake and Fire of 1906.

-- Staff Reports and Bay City News


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