A magnitude 5.1 earthquake struck the San Francisco Bay Area late Tuesday morning, rattling buildings and nerves, but thankfully not causing any significant damage or injuries.
The temblor struck at 11:42 a.m. about 9 miles from Seven Trees and 12 miles east of San Jose, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
A magnitude 3.1 aftershock was reported about 5 minutes later.
A USGS “Did you feel it” map shows the quake was felt as far south as Salinas and as far north as Fairfield, California, north of San Francisco.
The temblor was on the Calaveras fault, which produced a 6.2 magnitude quake in 1984, KTLA sister station KRON reported.
Tuesday’s quake was the largest to hit the Bay Area since 2014’s South Napa earthquake – a magnitude 6.0., seismologist Lucy Jones noted.
The U.S. National Tsunami Warning Center indicated that a tsunami was not expected after the quake.
Rich Constantine, the mayor of Morgan Hill, a city next to San Jose, said he was in the kitchen of his home when the “long and steady” quake struck, the Associated Press reported.
“We had a frame in the house fall, everything was shaking but once it stopped, there was no damage,” he said.
Constantine said Morgan Hill’s City Hall and other city offices were evacuated but that everyone returned to work soon after.
California’s Office of Emergency Services is coordinating with local authorities in the Bay Area to evaluate any preliminary damage or issues caused by the quake, the agency said in a tweet.
Several commuter train companies, including Cal Train and the Bay Area Rapid Transit system, known as BART, held trains to check for damage. BART returned to normal service by early afternoon, according to KRON.
