LOSE IT! 5.1 earthquake centered in the San Jose area

A magnitude 5.1 earthquake centered in downtown San Jose struck at 11:42 p.m. today in the nation’s 10th largest city, the US Geological Survey said.

The USGS said the quake was felt as far north as wine country and Sacramento and as far south as Salinas and Big Sur, to the ocean beyond Santa Cruz and east of Merced and Modesto.

There were no reports of damage or injuries as a result of the earthquake, which occurred along the Calaveras fault at a depth of 8.4 kilometers.

At least three aftershocks from the quake, centered about four miles south of downtown San Jose near the intersection of Monterey Highway and East Capitol Expressway, were felt in the two hours after the first tremor, ranging in magnitude from 1.6 to 2.9. .

The quake came less than eight days after the anniversary of the devastating 1989 quake centered in the Santa Cruz Mountains southwest of San Jose.

Three decades of journalism experience as a writer and editor for Gannett, Knight-Ridder and Lee newspapers, as editor and publisher of a business magazine and as editor of a weekly newspaper in Scotts Valley and Gilroy; with Weeklys Publishing since 2017. Recipient of multiple writing and editing awards, California News Publishers Association.