September 28, 2004
Didn't feel it...
This one was quite south of here, but people felt it all the way up to San Fran. It really is quite BIG looking on the map though (it was a 6.0)
Its really interesting since they've been predicting an earthquake there for years, so they had great equipment ready to measure and learn from it. According to a Knight Ridder article, "The effects of Tuesday's quake will be felt by geologists the world over who have been waiting for nearly two decades for an earthquake to hit this stretch of open rangeland."
Tuesday's quake hit the infamous San Andreas fault in a sparsely populated area seven miles south of Parkfield at 10:15 a.m., rupturing an estimated 20 to 30 miles of the fault. It was followed by a string of aftershocks, including a magnitude 5.0 jolt just four minutes later.An hour after the earthquake, the U.S. Geological Survey warned of a 50 percent chance of a magnitude 5.0 or greater aftershock and as many as 70 magnitude 3.0 or greater shocks over the next seven days.
According to the geological survey, there is also a 5 to 10 percent chance another 6.0 or greater quake could hit the same area, or the fault section immediately to the south, in the next week.
There are some great quotes reacting to the quake in the Merc, and a piece from CNET about places to find earthquake info online.