Just a few minutes ago, I felt a couple of gentle rolls that usually indicate an earthquake. I mentioned it to my wife via IM, and she felt it too (in Pleasanton). I then did what I always do: I hit the USGS Realtime Earthquake site. Apparently a magnitude 6 event happend near Parkfield, right along the San Andreas. That’s about 170 miles or so from here, so it must have been pretty bad.

Update: It now appears there have been two quakes, magnitude 5 and 5.9. Hope everybody is allright.

Update2: Apparently it’s still shaking down there pretty good. I haven’t felt any aftershocks, but the USGS maps are showing new sizeable quakes.

Update3: Here are a couple of realtime seismograph dumps of the event, as recorded by two seismic stations:

Here is the log of our IM conversation:

(10:17:12) ***myself wonders if that was just an earthquake.
(10:17:25) mywife: i thought i was tripping
(10:17:41) myself: you felt one too?
(10:18:04) mywife: yes
(10:18:25) myself: slow roller?
(10:18:31) mywife: slow
(10:18:33) mywife: rolling
(10:18:46) myself: nothing as yet on the realtime map.
(10:19:21) mywife: that was a weird one. 2 other people had the same reaction. “i thought it was me!”
(10:20:28) myself: still nothing on the earthquake map.
(10:21:16) mywife: 5.8 down south
(10:21:31) mywife: The magnitude 5.8 event occurred 14 km (9 miles) NNW of Shandon, CA.
(10:21:33) myself: ow! it just appeared!
(10:21:40) myself: That’s a big one.
(10:22:32) mywife: yes
(10:22:49) mywife: oh, now it says 6