Magnitude 6.5 Quake near San Simeon (CA coast, about midway between LA and SF)

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[Yossarian]

Anyone in the San Francisco Bay Area just feel that earthquake? I'm in Sunnyvale, and it felt like a 4....

[commish]

NOW UP TO 6 AFTERSHOCKS

3.3 2003/12/22 11:35:28 35.563N 120.878W 4.4 14 km ( 9 mi) N of Cayucos, CA

2.9 2003/12/22 11:33:58 35.602N 120.930W 0.1 15 km ( 9 mi) ENE of Cambria, CA

4.0 2003/12/22 11:31:05 35.541N 120.853W 5.4 12 km ( 7 mi) NNE of Cayucos, CA

4.4 2003/12/22 11:30:10 35.597N 120.982W 0.0 11 km ( 7 mi) ENE of Cambria, CA

3.9 2003/12/22 11:29:39 35.557N 120.842W 2.5 12 km ( 7 mi) W of Templeton, CA

4.7 2003/12/22 11:26:07 35.627N 121.020W 0.0 10 km ( 6 mi) NE of Cambria, CA

6.5 2003/12/22 11:15:56 35.706N 121.102W 7.6 11 km ( 7 mi) NE of San Simeon, CA

[spectre]

MSNBC has great Helicopter coverage...

sw

[The Grim Freeper]

I'm at Kaiser Permanente Santa Clara, and it went on and on and on. That's the most nervous I've been since the Loma Prieta (I live in Los Gatos).

[FeliciaCat]

Not all of us want you to fall in! I love SF - its the MOST beautiful city west of the Mississippi IMO...(I'm originally from Riverside County..)Stay safe and Merry Christmas!

[Solson]

QUOTE OF THE DAY: A 10-year old on the Earthquake... "It was stupid. I expected better."

[diamondjoe]

Thank goodness--Drudge finally has a natural-disaster reason to break out the cannons and the red type and the alarms and etc.

[CounterCounterCulture]

My Godson from San Luis Obispo is 10. This is the first earthquake he remembers. He said "it was stupid and expected better."

Kids. (rolls eyes)

[spookycc]

FNC hasn't mentioned any of the aftershocks... All quiet here in Hoosierland. ;-P

[BurbankKarl]

Incident: 0170 Type: Traffic Hazard Location: SAN MIGUEL Map Page: 473 1F Info as of: 12/22/2003 11:41:12 AM

ADDITIONAL DETAILS
11:39AM - RIVER RD AT 14TH, BRIDGE CONSTRUCTION HIGHER ON ONE SIDE
11:29AM - BRIDGE HI ON ONE SIDE NOW

[WestCoastGal]

Could be this fault or the San Simeon fault, comes close to the 35.7 N and 121.1W area of quake


Hosgri Fault Zone


TYPE OF FAULT: primarily reverse and thrust, with some right-lateral slip
LENGTH: at least 140 km; complex zone of interlaced and parallel fault segments
NEAREST COMMUNITIES: San Simeon, Cambria, Morro Bay, Surf
LAST MAJOR RUPTURE: November 4, 1927, ML7.3 (?)
MOST RECENT SURFACE RUPTURE: Holocene, in part; otherwise Quaternary
SLIP RATE: unknown
INTERVAL BETWEEN MAJOR RUPTURES: unknown
PROBABLE MAGNITUDES: MW6.5 - 7.5
OTHER NOTES: Faults dip to the northeast. This zone is entirely offshore, with the possible exception of the San Simeon fault, which spans the 18 km between San Simeon and Ragged Point (northwest of the region covered on this map). The earthquake of 1927 is poorly located and may not have occurred on the Hosgri fault zone.

[shellylet]

Please people, calm down! That's just California's way of shaking-up the illegals and terrorists!!
The next report will be of a huge stampede heading across the southern border into Mexico! We can only hope!

[commish]

2 MORE AFTERSHOCKS

3.6 2003/12/22 11:37:44 35.589N 120.971W 5.6 11 km ( 7 mi) ENE of Cambria, CA

2.5 2003/12/22 11:37:24 35.736N 121.114W 5.4 12 km ( 8 mi) NE of San Simeon, CA

[mhking]

MSNBC is carrying live coverage from KNBC. KCBS is also carrying coverage - KNBC has the only chopper up now. KABC has blown it off and has gone to other news (it's part of their regular 11A PT newscast). KTTV (Fox 11) hasn't interrupted their rerun of "I Love Lucy."

[Phsstpok]

Now, should we be worried this is a minor preliminary shake for the "big one" or can we stand down and finish our Christmas Eve Gumbo?

If this is a pre-shock for a bigger one then that other quake will likely happen in the next 24 hours. The odds are relatively high right now (first hour) for another, bigger, quake in the same area. They go down fairly fast over the next 24 hours.

Just called my folks in Palo Alto (University Drive area, north of San Jose) and they didn't feel it, though other folks in their "high rise" (5 floors) condo did and said the chandeliers were swaying. My folks are in their 80s, so I'm not surprised.

San Simeon area now reporting minor injuries, gas leaks and small fires, according to Fox. Hearst Castle phone lines are down. I hope that monument will survive. I love Citzen Kane's house.

[mhking]

Fox 11 finally broke in - no chopper shots yet though.

[Drango]

Hey, there's FREEPERS in SF... no need of talk of us falling into the Bay. :(

It's tough love :-) and take Berkeley with you.

[1atv]

I'm in the Santa Ynez Valley & it was a rolling ride here!

[commish]

ROLLIN ROLLIN ROLLIN

2 MORE AFTERSHOCKS

3.4 2003/12/22 11:41:04 35.547N 120.853W 0.9 12 km ( 8 mi) NNE of Cayucos, CA

3.3 2003/12/22 11:39:58 35.667N 121.051W 0.1 13 km ( 8 mi) E of San Simeon, CA

[hankbrown]

This is interesting. From here.

Man-made earthquakes may seem like something out of the X-Files, and it's probably only a matter of time before the idea is picked up by Hollywood. This year, best-selling thriller author Ken Follett released his latest book, Hammer of Eden, about a terrorist group threatening to level San Francisco with a man-made earthquake. When asked by Salon Magazine how real is the idea of a man-made earthquake, Follett replied that "Some of the seismologists told me, 'There's no way this could happen.' But others gave sad little shrugs and said, 'It's hard to say. Who knows? Maybe. It's within the realm of possibly.'"