back to article Silicon Valley jolted by magnitude 6.1 quake – its biggest in 25 years

A magnitude 6.1 earthquake shook northern Californians out of bed today at 3.20am, shutting down power and wrecking homes in the state's wine country. The Sunday morning tremor was the biggest to hit the Bay Area since the destructive M6.9 quake in 1989. The epicenter of today's shallow quake was just a few miles from Napa, …

  1. Old Used Programmer

    I live in Vallejo, which is (officially) 8 miles from the epicenter (American Canyon is just north of Vallejo). Only seemed to feel like about 4 seconds, but where I live, the house is built on solid ground, not fill.

  2. Nate Amsden

    woke me up

    first earthquake to ever wake me up I think, I am close to SFO airport, felt like it was going for quite a while down here.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: woke me up

      I think it depends what your house is built on, I live in the hills near SFO and slept through it, no damage or disturbance :)

  3. Stoneshop
    Coat

    Bunch of fanbois

    stomping their feet after hearing of possible iPhone 6 delays?

  4. johnnymotel

    some cocktail that must have made

  5. ThomH

    Slept through it

    I am to earthquakes as many are to silicon valley "innovation".

  6. Number6

    Snoozefest

    The first I knew about it was when I read about it on the web this morning. Good job I didn't crash overnight at yesterday's party, that was only about ten miles from the epicentre. South end of the Bay obviously got a much gentler version because it didn't disturb me.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    I feel for the grocery store workers and wine cellars

    I worked my way through college during the period when we had the Loma Prieta quake and a somewhat smaller one down near San Martin in the southern Bay Area.

    Earthquakes make a mess of anything placed on shelves, especially if it is in glass containers.

    1. diodesign (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

      Re: I feel for the grocery store workers and wine cellars

      Judging by the pics of smashed bottles and fallen kegs and barrels, this quake clearly hated booze.

      C.

      1. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge

        Re: I feel for the grocery store workers and wine cellars

        Yet another ISIS hit.

        Let's see whether this is the straw that breaks the teethering economy's overleveraged circlejerk's back...

  8. Old Used Programmer

    People who haven't been through a local disaster may not realize that you're seeing the same damage pictures of the same places over and over again. Note the text on reports...*3* historic and *2* commercial buildings (brick structures in both cases...a construction method *known* to be unsafe in 'quakes) were damaged. The trailers *burned* because of ones unsecured to support blocks broke gas lines when they came off the blocks.

    The damage is actually fairly minimal and quite localized.

    1. MondoMan

      Yes, and quite distant from what is normally considered "Silicon Valley". The 'rents, who live on the Midpeninsula in a single-story wood-framed house, were not awakened by it.

      Hopefully, no touring bicyclists in Napa will be inconvenienced; then again, perhaps someone was filming a remake of View to a Kill...

    2. noodle heimer

      sod-all to do with Silly Valley

      here in Oakland, we slept through the quake. Saw the news and checked the logging - 4 of 4 Vallejo locations online and no reported issues overnight. Not one call. One unmanned site lost house power for three hours. And that level of non-issue was 8 miles from the quake.

      In Silly Valley they might have felt it, but jolted? really? I gather the author of this piece is a new arrival. he ought to read up on the Hayward fault which runs near his home in Oakland and is capable of very large motion. its proximity to bedrock means its tremors are less diminished with distance than many faults, and virtually all the drinking water feeding the mains in the east bay passes across it. We have a lot of water in three gallon jugs distributed in the house - enough for two dogs and three people for a bit, and more for our neighbors as I'd like them to have incentive to help.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Did they showcase a disruptive technology?

  10. jake Silver badge

    Sonoma here, 8-10 miles from the epicenter.

    I was actually awake (pulling meat out of the smokehouse, crush has started & I like to keep my fieldhands very, very gruntled). About half a minute of pretty good shaking, woke the wife & most of the dawgs. Lost PG&E power for about 6 hours, but that's what backup generators are for. No other damage. OK, to be truthful, I had three Green Zebra Cherry tomatos roll off the kitchen counter. I spotted two of them and picked them up. I stepped on the third ;-)

    Gut feeling is that most of the quake's energy was deflected around Sonoma Valley by the roots of the Mayacamas Mountains. We won't be so lucky when Rogers Creek lets go ... "When, not If" is the mantra around here.

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    UPSes and surge protectors

    "At least 30,000 homes were reportedly without power at one point."

    To be fair to the earthquake, a lot of PG&E equipment is in a state of maintenance where a quick shower on a warm day will snap the rotting utility poles, burn up a rusty splice, or cause wires to sag into the path of vehicles. The outage page always looks like that.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: UPSes and surge protectors

      All but a couple hundred restored within 24 hours.

  12. Anomalous Cowshed

    outraged from Giggleswick

    Dear Sir, Madman,

    I am absolutely revulsed and distraught about the pictures showing broken bottles littering the floor and reports of tomatoes rolling off the kitchen counter. Are there no limits to the lengths you will go to turn people's suffering into salacious stories? You should be ashamed of yourselves. Fi!

  13. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

    The map below shows the area with the epicenter labelled.

    No it doesn't - unless there is a joke I'm not getting

    Or Chrome has a secret function to deny the existence of earthquakes in SF as part of a sinister Google campaign to something something ...

POST COMMENT House rules

Not a member of The Register? Create a new account here.

  • Enter your comment

  • Add an icon

Anonymous cowards cannot choose their icon

Other stories you might like