SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – A magnitude 5.1 earthquake rattled the San Francisco Bay Area on Tuesday, causing delays of some commuter trains. There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.
The United States (US) Geological Survey said the 11.42am quake was centred 19 kilometres east of San Jose at a depth of about six kilometres. The area is hill country about 64 kilometres southeast of downtown San Francisco.
Lucy Jones, a veteran California seismologist, told KNTV-TV that the quake happened on the Calaveras fault, one of eight major faults in the Bay Area.
“The Calaveras fault is one that tends to have smaller earthquakes,” Jones said. It was the largest earthquake in the Bay Area since a magnitude 6.0 jolt in the country in 2014, Jones said in a social media post.
The 220-kilometre long Calaveras fault is a major branch of the San Andreas fault and runs from San Juan Bautista in the south to San Ramon in the north, Jones said.
Numerous moderate earthquakes have occurred along the Calaveras fault, including the 6.2 Morgan Hill earthquake in 1984, Annemarie Baltay, a seismologist with the US Geological Survey, said in a video statement posted on Twitter.
