A flurry of seismic stirrings shook things up near the areas of Gilroy and Morgan Hill Monday.
A 2.6 magnitude earthquake occurred at 8:42 a.m. near San Felipe Road, just nine miles north of Morgan Hill and 12 miles north of San Martin, according to the United States Geological Survey. This was followed by a smaller, 1.2 magnitude earthquake around 12:36 p.m. three miles south of Gilroy.
Things were also shaking around 1:48 a.m. 15 miles southeast of Hollister, where the USGS recorded a 2.9 magnitude earthquake. The same goes for an area six miles north of Watsonville, where a 2.0 earthquake was recorded around 4:42 p.m.
Monday’s quake cluster was precipitated by two early morning temblors in San Benito County, according to USGS records.
A 2.1 earthquake hit at 7:31 a.m. Friday two miles southwest of San Juan Bautista, followed by a 2.3 magnitude earthquake at 8:54 a.m. Sunday just one mile southeast of Aromas.
These recent patterns are nothing out of the ordinary, according to Susan Garcia, public information officer for the USGS Earthquake Science Center in northern California.
“Earthquakes can happen at any time of the year,” she said Tuesday over the phone. “We really don’t know when the next large earthquake will happen. The best thing we can do is to be prepared. The more we know, the better we’ll do and less fearful we’ll be.”
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