At 4:42 AM, we just felt a pretty intense earthquake in Berkeley. The house shook back and forth, causing items to fall from shelves. The duration was perhaps 10 seconds. The first radio reports say it was only a 4.2 magnitude temblor, but it felt much stronger than that to me. Preliminary epicenter is put as "2 miles east/northeast of Oakland" which would be roughly Berkeley, so we were very close. Maybe right on top of the epicenter.If that's what a 4.2 quake feels like up close, I do not look forward to something truly strong.Of course, it will come. My bet is that this was the Hayward Fault, which we are almost on top of (it runs right through the middle of the UC Berkeley fotball stadium), and we are close enough to hear the fans cheer.No serious damage reported anywhere so far. So I hope that this is one of those adjustments to stress on the fault line which relieve stress.Update:The epicenter is reported to be quite shallow, at 3 miles, which makes...(Read Full Post)