5.6 out of Alum Rock!

That's right next to Milpitas, right, and closer to me than you? Where are you getting your info though Dave - I can't find a TV channel or website that's updated on it.

Check out the Merc: link

Thanks Harold. I presume you felt it too?

Sure. How long did it feel, for you in Palo Alto? It's interesting to me (having studied geology) to hear how differently the waves propogate in different areas. Over here in Fremont we're mostly on bedrock, so the compression waves became slower and more drawn out. We had a good 20 seconds of nice long waves. People I talked to in San Jose and Mountain View (all sedimentary land) experienced it as a more violent and brief shaking, 5-10 seconds. The news station up in SF reported about 30 seconds of shaking!

It felt like 30 seconds here. A brief shake, pause, Cressida moving into the doorway even though that's not really helpful, and then another shake.

The last 'quake I felt that was similar was back in 1984 - just a good solid rolling motion for several seconds. The Loma Prieta earthquake in 1989 (just a little over 18 years ago) was long waves, but it went on for longer and got steadily more forceful.

Tonight, I said to my wife "That felt like a 5", which, coincidentally, could be true of either the Richter or Mercalli scales.

I was in Berkeley, and it was pretty small.