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....

[John H K]

anyone know what fault line the 6.5 occurred on?

Well, presumably the San Simeon Fault, (one of the many faults parallel to the San Andreas, in this case, parallel and to the west) but it can actually take some time in some instances to figure it out.

Actually, I believe the San Andreas in this vicinity actually doesn't generate quakes...it's (and I'll have to check on this) in the "Central Creeping Zone" there. It simply slowly creeps along without locking up.

[Bernard Marx]

Just talked to my own sis in Thousand Oaks, and she didn't feel a thing. It's odd how certain areas closer to the epicenter remain unaffected.

I live in Camarillo, about 5 miles west of T.O., and we had about a full minute of rocking and rolling -- enough to send us outside. My daughter in Los Osos, about 30-35 miles south of the epicenter, said it was pretty interesting there for a while. They'd felt a foreshock and were checking for information on line when the 6.5 sent everyone under their desks.

I just heard a USGS report saying this was a normal mountain-building quake related to plate movement near the CA coast. The dramatic mountains that come right down to the ocean along Highway 1 between Cambria and the Monterery area are being slowly uplited. As the USGS guy put it: "It's just a normal part of the geological rearrangement of California."

[TenthAmendmentChampion]

Cayucos... spent Christmas 2001 there... what a wonderful place.

[Saundra Duffy]

It wasn't very strong in Fresno; just enough to make people nervous.

[WestCoastGal]

Oops, just got a new notice for the Gorman one

not sure if the two are the same?? PRINCIPAL EARTHQUAKE PARAMETERS _______________________________ Magnitude : 3.3 Ml (A micro quake) Event Date & Time : 12/22/2003 12:06:45 PM PST 12/22/2003 20:06:45 UTC Coordinates : 34.7847 N, 118.7948 W : (34 deg. 47.08 min. N, 118 deg. 47.69 min. W) Depth : 19.0 miles ( 30.4 km) Location Quality : Good 3 mi. ( 5 km) ESE of Gorman, CA 42 mi. ( 68 km) SSE of Bakersfield, CA 5 mi. ( 8 km) SSW of GORMAN (quarry)

[thesummerwind]

Magnitude 6.5 Quake near San Simeon

Was Hillary in town?

[BurbankKarl]

major fire in Lake Cachuma area of Santa Barbara County....

[Redcloak]

The water was moving side to side; not rippling outward!

8 ^ 0

[Saundra Duffy]

Thanks for the info on earthquakes. Very interesting. Are you a seismologist (sp?)?

[John H K]

Only two places in the country that are apparently COMPLETELY devoid of earthquakes of any kind are 1) Florida and 2) East Texas.

[WestCoastGal]

No confirmation yet on fault.

[ShellieGOP]

I'm outside of Watsonville, and it was a silent, rolling quake which lasted a good 25 seconds or more... The chandelier was swinging back and forth for minutes afterwards. As quakes go here in CA, business as usual! :)

[mhking]

KCBS/KCAL: Aftershocks from 2.5 up to 5.0; quake was felt as far north as San Francisco and as far south as San Diego.

[Dog Gone]

MAINSHOCK: Mon 22 Dec 2003 11:15:56 AM /usr/share/lib/zoneinfo/PST MAGNITUDE 6.5

11 km ( 7 miles) NE ( 49 degrees) of San Simeon, CA

STRONG AFTERSHOCKS (Magnitude 5 and larger)

At this time (immediately after the mainshock) the probability of a strong and possibly damaging aftershock IN THE NEXT 7 DAYS is greater than 90 PERCENT.

EARTHQUAKES LARGER THAN THE MAINSHOCK

Most likely, the recent mainshock will be the largest in the sequence. However, there is a small chance (APPROXIMATELY 5 TO 10 PERCENT) of an earthquake equal to or larger than this mainshock in the next 7 days.

WEAK AFTERSHOCKS (Magnitude 3 to 5)

In addition, approximately 120 to 200 SMALL AFTERSHOCKS are expected in the same 7-DAY PERIOD and may be felt locally.

[commish]

Not professionally. Just very interested in this stuff, so I read up on it when I was stationed in California.

The power of the earth just amazes me.

[John H K]

I just heard a USGS report saying this was a normal mountain-building quake related to plate movement near the CA coast. The dramatic mountains that come right down to the ocean along Highway 1 between Cambria and the Monterery area are being slowly uplited. As the USGS guy put it: "It's just a normal part of the geological rearrangement of California."

On a geological time scale most everything is normal :-)

[CounterCounterCulture]

Paso Robles - no power, no gas, no cell phones

[Yossarian]

Reports coming in of a total building collapse in Paso Robles, where the building collapsed onto cars, and at least one person is trapped in a car. Once again, send prayers out folks....

[Grampa Dave]

It is Eureka's fault for not having an earthquake to ease the tension in S. Cali..

Our neighbors were driving down 1 tomorrow to visit her parents just north of LA Christmas.

She just called and said that it looks like I5 to the Grapeyard and then into LA. We felt nothing, but these neighbors have a blind dog that hates earthquakes. It went into a long whine at the time and during the after shocks.