Magnitude 3.6 earthquake centered near Gilroy felt in San Francisco

A magnitude 3.6 earthquake that struck near Gilroy was felt throughout the San Francisco Bay Area Tuesday night.

The earthquake happened along the San Andreas fault boundary, said U.S. Geological Survey geophysicist Jana Pursley. “Earthquakes do happen there quite frequently.”

The temblor was centered about seven miles southwest of Gilroy and five miles from Watsonville. It was followed by a magnitude 2.7 aftershock about a minute later.

On Twitter, residents throughout the Bay Area reported minor shaking, but others said they missed it.

Residents reporting what they felt on the USGS’ crowd-sourcing “Did You Feel It?” program reported feeling light shaking in Santa Clara and Santa Cruz counties and weak shaking from Monterey to San Francisco and Berkeley.

Officials used the minor earthquake as an opportunity to remind residents to sign up for emergency notification services.

According to the USGS, the epicenter was five miles from Watsonville, Calif., and seven miles southwest of Gilroy, Calif.

In the last 10 days, there have been two earthquakes of magnitude 3.0 or greater centered nearby.

On Jan. 4, a magnitude 4.4 earthquake struck underneath Berkeley and was more widely felt throughout the Bay Area.

Read more about Southern California earthquakes.

UPDATES:

11:10 p.m.: This article was updated throughout.

10:45 p.m.: This article was updated with a revised magnitude by the USGS.

This article was originally published at 10:25 p.m.