A magnitude 4.9 earthquake centered in Santa Cruz County shook Northern California early Thursday, waking up people as far away as San Francisco.
The earthquake occurred at 1:41 am. The epicenter was less than a mile away from the community of Boulder Creek in Santa Cruz County. It was about 11 miles northwest of Santa Cruz, 19 miles southwest of downtown San Jose, and 48 miles southeast of downtown San Francisco.
There were no reports of immediate damage, according to the San Mateo-Santa Cruz California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. Unit.
According to the United States Geological Survey, moderate shaking, as defined by the Modified Mercalli Intensity Scale, was felt in the Santa Cruz Mountains closest to the epicenter. Generally, a moderate shock is enough to wake people up and is capable of breaking dishes and windows.
A magnitude 4.9 earthquake struck 11 miles northwest of Santa Cruz.
(U.S. Geological Survey)
According to the USGS, light tremors were felt in Silicon Valley and weak tremors were felt in the rest of the San Francisco Bay area.
The earthquake occurred near the Zayante fault, which runs parallel to the San Andreas fault. According to county officials, the Zayante and San Andreas faults are considered to pose the most severe shaking threats in the Santa Cruz County area.
Several people across Northern California reported hearing alerts generated by the USGS ShakeAlert earthquake early warning system before feeling the shaking.
The epicenter of Thursday's earthquake was about 14 miles northwest of the starting point of the 1989 magnitude 6.9 Loma Prieta earthquake, which caused the collapse of a section of Interstate 880 in Oakland and a partial collapse of a section of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge. The 1989 earthquake caused at least 63 deaths and was the largest earthquake on the San Andreas Fault since the Great San Francisco Earthquake of 1906.
