4.0 quake centered near Piedmont

The earthquake hit early in the morning and was centered around Piedmont, about 13 miles east of San Francisco.

A preliminary 4.0-magnitude earthquake has been reported near Piedmont this morning, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

The shallow quake produced a sharp jolt followed by gentle rolls.

An AFP reporter living in San Francisco itself said she felt the quake distinctly but there was no damage in her home.

Watch below as KTVU’s Steve Paulson was on air with his weather report when the 4.0 magnitude earthquake hit near Berkeley.

Social media quickly filled up with reports from residents who felt the earthquake, and some mass transit was delayed while officials checked to ensure there was no damage. Only around 30,000 people, in the immediate area of the epicentre, experienced shaking which the USGS describes as strong.

The tremor had a depth of 3.3 miles, USGS said.

While hanging onto the background “green screen” in the studio, he said: “Oh my gosh we’re having an earthquake”. South of Fremont it branches into many surface faults that connect it to the Calaveras Fault.

The region is a place of ongoing and often imperceptible earthen creeping, as evidenced by routinely broken sidewalks in Hayward and Fremont.

More than 143 million Americans could be exposed to potentially damaging ground shaking caused by earthquakes, the study concludes. “You could hear everything just shake”.

The largest recorded earthquake to hit California was the 1857 Ft.