A magnitude 6.0 earthquake hit the greater San Francisco Bay Area overnight on Saturday, according to the San Francisco Chronicle . The earthquake, which hit near American Canyon in Napa County at 3:20 a.m., was only about 40 miles northeast of San Francisco. Nearby cities include that felt the earthquake included Napa and Sonoma, renowned for their wines.
The earthquake had one aftershock at about 6:30 a.m., according to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).
The 6.0 earthquake, which is fairly large even for typically earthquake-riddled California, was about 6.7 miles deep and felt throughout Northern California.
The earthquake caused some buckling on a local highway, but it didn’t seem to have an immediate impact on Bay Area bridges. There were widespread power outages near the earthquake’s epicenter.
The Pacific Gas and Electric Company was showing that over 15,000 customers were without power, according to ABC News . Those most impacted were largely in the counties of Napa, Sonoma, and Santa Rosa.
An ABC News producer who lives about 35 minutes from Napa told the station that the shaking from the earthquake lasted about 30 seconds, and “it was the strongest earthquake he felt in years.”
The San Francisco Chronicle also reports that the earthquake jolted many people awake. Officer Albie Esparza, a spokesman for the San Francisco Police Department, told the newspaper that all police stations in San Francisco were up and running, and no damage had been done to their facilities.
Police were asking Napa area residents to refrain from calling 911 to see whether an earthquake had occurred.
Chile suffered its own 6.4 earthquake within hours of the California rumbler. The epicenter of that quake was about 67 miles northwest of Santiago, according to the USGS. The earthquake in Chile was about 19 miles deep, according to the Epoch Times.
The California earthquake seemed to cause only minor damage, according to pictures and comments area residents posted on Twitter.
More damage #earthquake #napavalley pic.twitter.com/ovh0Q2fBHo
— Elizabeth Naylor (@ENaylorEvents) August 24, 2014
Another Tweet showed a buckled road:
Here is one of the roads buckled pretty bad in North Napa #earthquake pic.twitter.com/koqdhKFI67
— Adam Housley (@adamhousley) August 24, 2014
[Images Via Twitter]
