Quake Swarm Hits Santa Cruz Area
A swarm of earthquakes that included one measuring 4.0 rattled the Santa Cruz Mountains on Tuesday, but there were no reports of injuries or damage.
The temblors were centered near Ben Lomond, about 52 miles south of San Francisco.
The Santa Cruz police dispatch center received several calls from people who thought the largest quake was an explosion. A dispatcher described the 4.0 quake that hit at 4:38 a.m. as a “good shaker.”
Such earthquake swarms were “not unusual in that area,” U.S. Geological Survey spokesman Dale Cox said.
A 3.0 temblor was recorded at about 2 a.m. The 4.0 quake was followed by a 3.5, a 3.8 and a 1.8 within seven minutes.
San Francisco radio station KCBS said it received calls from people in the Bay Area who reported feeling the larger quake.
Also, a magnitude-3.1 earthquake shook southeastern Inyo County, Caltech reported. The temblor--a new quake, not an aftershock--was recorded at 5:42 a.m. and centered five miles east of Coso Junction, near the China Lake U.S. Naval Weapons Center, Caltech seismologist Bob Dollar said.
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