Bay Area Shaken By 4.1 Earthquake

Citizens of the San Francisco Bay Area were given a little added excitement to their morning Thursday when an earthquake registering 4.1 on the Richter Scale shook the ground causing minimal damage.
Bay Area Shaken By 4.1 Earthquake
1/7/2010
Updated:
1/7/2010
Citizens of the San Francisco Bay Area were given a little added excitement to their morning Thursday when an earthquake registering 4.1 on the Richter Scale shook the ground causing minimal damage.

At 10:09 a.m., the Calaveras Fault created a vibration that shook the earth for quite a distance. The vibrations were felt in San Francisco but the actual quake occurred 11 miles away from the San Jose City Hall. There were no reports of serious damage.

The quake was six miles east of the mountains near Milpitas and rattled a local dam at a nearby reservoir. The dam is over 85 years old and showed no signs of damage after the quake.

“Usually you just hear a ripple of the roof. This one we felt in the entire building,” stated local park ranger Neil Spargur to the San Jose Mercury News.

The quake was more noticeable than others in the recent past but it is to be expected in the Bay Area due to the constant shifting of continental plates that periodically remind people of their presence. The shaking did startle a lot of people but their were no fatalities and very few reported injuries.

“In the big picture, doesn’t mean anything,“ Spargur said. ”It’s just part of the natural background process.”