An early morning earthquake rattled people out of their beds in the San Francisco Bay Area this morning. According to the USGS, a 4.4 earthquake struck at 2:39am PT roughly 2 miles east of Berkeley. The epicenter of the earthquake occured along the Hayward fault, one of the most known and most feared fault lines running through the Bay Area. The Hayward fault is forecast by seismologists to produce a magnitude 7 or greater quake undernearth heavily populated areas of the San Francisco metro area; however, scientists aren’t sure exactly when such a quake would occur.
No deaths or injuries have been reported yet from this morning’s quake. The same wasn’t true in 1868 when a quake along the Hayward fault killed 30 people and created widespread property damage; the quake then had a magnitude of 6.8.
The Hayward fault is located directly under the urban centers of the East Bay, including Memorial Stadium at UC Berkeley and a now-shuttered building that formerly housed Hayward City Hall, which is slowly being torn up by fault movement.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center says there’s no danger of tsunami from this morning’s quake.
Seismologists are reviewing data to see if this morning’s quake is a precursor to a larger quake.
