An earthquake with a magnitude of 4.3 rocked the San Francisco Bay Area early on Monday, waking up many people in the northern California region.
The quake hit just east-south-east of Berkeley, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) said, and more than 22,000 people said they felt it.
No injuries or major damage was reported, but some businesses said windows were broken and merchandise tumbled from shelves.
Residents were jolted awake just before 3am. The earthquake was strong and long, loud noises and objects falling from shelves. Residents could be heard shouting. Many people reported lying awake waiting for aftershocks.
Online, too, residents reported feeling their homes shake. Bay Area Rapid Transit (Bart) posted on X that trains were running at reduced speeds as it completed safety track inspections. It told commuters to expect delays of up to 20 minutes systemwide.
There were no reports of major damage.
“While 911 received an increase in calls from people who felt shaking, there have been no reports of injuries in San Francisco at this time, the city’s department of emergency management posted on X. The department said it has not received any damage reports.
San Francisco’s mayor, Dan Lurie, posted online about the quake, saying: “First responders are assessing any impact to our city, and we will give an update later today.”
“Things were shaking in our newsroom,” posted Dave Clark, a news anchor for KTVU-TV. “It caught everyone off guard.”
News stations reported that people as far south as Salinas, about 100 miles (160km) from Berkeley, felt it.
The shaking is a stark reminder of the looming risks of a much larger quake in this earthquake-prone region, and the need for residents to prepare.
The USGS said the last quake of a similar size near Berkeley was a magnitude 4.4 that hit on 4 January 2018.
“As far as earthquakes go, this is kind of the ones where people feel them, but there’s not a whole lot of impacts to them,” said Brayden Murdock of the National Weather Service in Monterey.
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