The Christmas Earthquake?

On Wednesday, there was a magnitude 3.7 earthquake just east of Berkeley; Nick Natoma wrote about it.

Last night, there was another 3.7 in the same location.

This morning, there was a third, magnitude 3.5, in the same location.

These are all happening along the northern part of the Hayward fault, one of the faults identified as most likely to cause a destructive earthquake in the next 30 years.

So I'm a little concerned that these are "foreshocks" to a big earthquake that may hit in the near future.

Fortunately (for me), the fault is over 50 miles away from my house. An earthquake there would cause a lot of destruction and damage in the Oakland/Berkeley area, though in San Francisco and the San Jose area, damage would probably be restricted to things falling off of shelves, cracked plaster, etc.

Nevertheless, I think now is a good time to make sure my car has a full tank and my cell phone is charged.

The USGS Bay Area Earthquake Page.

A tool that illustrates the effects of various Bay Area earthquake scenarios.