A moderate earthquake just hit San Jose area. USGS link
Definitely the strongest one I have felt since I moved to California 5 years ago.
Earthquake hit while I was in a class. It took me about 5-10 seconds to realize what the heck was going on before diving under the desk. Everyone else in my class followed suit.
A ceiling panel looked ominously close to falling free, but the shaking stopped after about 20 seconds, so it hang on.
After our class went out into the parking lot, everyone started calling their friends and relatives, but almost no one could get through. Interestingly enough text messages did go through.
Overall this was a very good exercise for me in terms of what to do and how to react during an earthquake.
Anyone else felt it?

Yes. We felt it very well in Albany/Berkeley, plus 2-3 small aftershocks later. It was longest in duration one, compared to everything I felt here since 1999. The phone lines were overloaded too. No problems with internet/messaging though

Another great thing about the internet

Nothing wakes you up and says "Are you ready?" like a small tremblor. Consider it a nice practice run. Glad it wasn't serious and you guys are okay.

Text messaging is much more reliable when circuits are overloaded because it uses far less bandwidth and the system will store and send the message when it can.

And telephone companies thought the phone lines were clogged after earthquakes when there were only land lines!

All those calls that blocked verbal service were "Did you feel that?" calls.

IF YOU DON'T HAVE AN EMERGENCY AFTER A QUAKE, STAY OFF THE EFFING PHONE! OTHER PEOPLE MAY REALLY NEED IT!

Sue

Hi Redflare,

Keeping an eye on the local lost pets section of the newspaper (more lost pets = higher chance of an earthquake) in conjunction with exceptional high and low tides (spring and neap tides) is a good way to predict an earthquake.

Apparently there is also a correlation between large local transistions in ionospheric electron density and ionospheric temperatures a few days prior to an earthquake.

The RTCM SC104 error correction data used in the differential error correction for GPS could therefore also have a predictive signal for earthquakes within the local datasets produced by locally based 300KHz beacon transmitters. Many of the SC104 datasets produced by the beacon transmitters are available on the internet.

So ...were you equipped?

I am pretty well equipped all the time.
My biggest concern was that I didn't realized fast enough of what was happening. That is why it took me so long to duck under the desk.

Hmm...
I have never heard of this.

Hi redflare,

If your interested you may want to have a look at http://www.meteoquake.org/researcha.html

What is quite interesting is that there appears to be way of predicting earthquakes from a few days to a few hours before hand which has a statistical correlation.

It could be that a combination of the analysis of using the GPS system data to produce live dynamic ionospheric electron density mapping measurements and infra-red imagery from MODIS and NOAA satellites could be a statistically viable way of predicting large to medium sized earthquake events a few days to a few hours prior to the event.

If this is the case then I suspect that an earthquake warning system is already in place and that the authorities would have this information as construction of this earthquake warning system would merely be a specialised computer program.

The problem of course would be, would the authorities give warnings to the public. For example would the government issue an earthquake warning stating for example there would be a 65% chance of a localised earthquake in the San Fransico bay area in the next 48 to 72 hours with a predicted 6.5-7 magnitude? Would they sit on this info or would they warn the public dispite the consequences?

In China they already have a public earthquake anouncement system.

Man I missed it! I was landing at SFO when it went off. This would have been the biggest one for me so far.
I know that earthquakes are serious but I also love the "living geology" of this part of world.
Once again the news is talking about being prepared but for the most part many here are not prepared at all.
If we have a "big one" Oaklnad will be a quite interesting place to be.
AS far as text messages go I have that service just for disaters. I can send hundreds of texts a month I think I have sent 6 in the whole time I have had this phone. But I keep that service just for disaster communication with my family.
Bill