‘Nervous now.’ Quake rocks San Francisco Bay Area on heels of deadly temblor

A 2.9-magnitude earthquake shook up the San Francisco Bay Area one day after a deadly quake off the Northern California coast, the U.S. Geological Survey reports.

The 2.6-mile deep quake hit near north of San Leandro east of Oakland at 8:30 a.m. Wednesday, Dec. 21, according to the USGS.

More than 1,000 people from as far away as Sacramento and San Jose reported feeling the tremor to the agency.

The quake hit just over 24 hours after a 6.4-magnitude tremor struck about 8 miles west of the small city of Ferndale, population 1,400, in Humboldt County at 2:30 a.m. Tuesday, Dec. 20, The Sacramento Bee reported.

Two people died and a dozen were hurt in the quake, and 14,000 people are still without power. Gov. Gavin Newsom has proclaimed a state of emergency for the county.

Dozens of aftershocks continue to rattle the area, but Wednesday’s quake in the Bay Area appears too distant at nearly 260 miles away to be one of them. That didn’t stop some from worrying, however.

“Anyone in the bay feel that earthquake just now?” asked one resident on Twitter. “It jolted the whole house here (in) Oakland.”

“Just felt quite a jolt on Berkeley/Oakland border,” read another post.

“Omg earthquake in Oakland I’m nervous now,” wrote another Twitter user.

San Leandro is a city of about 90,000 about 20 miles east of San Francisco.

Magnitude measures the energy released at the source of the earthquake, the U.S. Geological Survey says. It replaces the old Richter scale.

Quakes between 2.5 and 5.4 magnitude are often felt but rarely cause much damage, according to Michigan Tech. Quakes below 2.5 magnitude are seldom felt by most people.

This story was originally published December 21, 2022 at 3:09 PM with the headline "‘Nervous now.’ Quake rocks San Francisco Bay Area on heels of deadly temblor."