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To: Win Smith who wrote (113)	11/26/2002 11:32:33 AM
From: Karen Lawrence	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 603

Tremors hit Bay Area, scientists puzzled...East Bay quakes perplex scientists Cluster of tremors near San Ramon occurred on unnamed fault David Perlman, Chronicle Science Editor Tuesday, November 26, 2002 sfgate.com A puzzling swarm of nearly 50 small earthquakes shook the ground near San Ramon on Sunday and Monday. Although some residents in the area felt the larger tremors, none caused any significant damage. At first, the quakes raised the concerns of scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey in Menlo Park, because they appeared to be centered on a segment of the Calaveras Fault where scientists have calculated a major temblor may be coming in the next two decades. But by midafternoon Monday, the experts determined that the swarm of 47 miniquakes had occurred on a tiny unnamed fault that trends eastward away from the Calaveras for about a mile and a half, according to survey seismologist David H. Oppenheimer. The swarm began at 6:54 a.m. Sunday with a single magnitude 3.9 quake, the largest of the series, centered 2 miles east of San Ramon. Another, with a magnitude of 3.8, followed at 7:59 p.m. Sunday, and still another, with a magnitude of 3.5, came at 10:22 a.m. Monday. About 45 others with magnitudes of 1 or 2 jiggled seismograph needles a bit during the two days. All the quakes were centered at relatively shallow depths -- ranging from less than a mile to about a dozen miles underground, according to seismologist Oppenheimer, who monitored the Geological Survey's instruments recording the swarm. The swarm appeared at first to be centered directly beneath a segment of the Calaveras fault, which is considered "locked" because strain on the fault has been building up with little movement since a magnitude 6 temblor struck in 1861, according to geophysicist David P. Schwartz. Earthquake swarms are by no means unusual throughout the San Andreas zone's many branches -- of which the Calaveras is only one -- because the faults mark the boundaries between two vast moving slabs of the earth's crust, known as tectonic plates. The Pacific plate is moving steadily northward against the North American continental plate. As the two slabs grind against each other, they rupture the crust underground, causing smaller breaks like the cracks in a dinner plate. "It's a very complex area geologically," Schwartz said. "It's all highly fractured and still poorly understood." In Alameda County, San Ramon Police Sergeant Bryan Reynolds said Monday that although the larger quakes triggered a few alarm bells in stores and businesses, there were no reports of damage or injuries anywhere. At San Ramon Floral Fantasy, a flower shop, owner Vinny Juneja said the largest of the quakes Sunday morning had felt merely like a single bump. The only damage in the shop occurred when a decorative bear fell of a shelf and ruined a $75 Phalaenopsis orchid, Juneja said. Chronicle staff writer Erin Hallissy contributed to this report. / E-mail David Perlman at dperlman@sfchronicle.com.

To: Win Smith who wrote (113)	11/26/2002 3:25:14 PM
From: tejek	Respond to of 603

URL, just for the record. The NYT may pull its links someday, but odds are NYT URLS are considerably more permanent than SI. Some of the media......NY Times, Business Week etc have a relationship with the ISP I use, and the links would be of no use to anyone not on my ISP. ted