Just before 3:30 a.m. Sunday, an earthquake rocked Northern California 10 miles northwest of American Canyon, six miles southwest of Napa, California according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
The 6.0 reading on the Richter scale renders it the largest earthquake since the 6.9 quake that shook the Bay area in 1989, which crumbled highways and buildings and postponed the MLB World Series. The Associated Press reported that there has been at least one report of structural damage.
“It was a rolling quake, Oakland resident Rich Lieberman told the AP. “It started very much like a rolling sensation and just got progressively worse in terms of length. Not so much in terms of shaking, but it did shake. It felt like a side-to-side kind of rolling sensation. Nothing violent but extremely lengthy and extremely active.”
The USGS stated that the depth of the earthquake was just under seven miles, and many aftershocks have continued to strike the Napa wine region. Randy Baldwin, a geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey in Golden, Colorado explained to the AP, “The 6.0 is a sizeable quake for this area. It’s a shallow quake. It’s about 6 miles deep. We received hundreds of reports on our website from people that felt it in the surrounding area.”
According to the the Los Angeles Times, residents have reported power outages in Napa, and fire departments in several counties, along with the California Highway Patrol, were on the lookout for damage to bridges. Moreover, the Times reported that gas leaks, downed power lines and at least one fire have been reported.
Photo: Lyall Davenport/AP