Hi All. The quake activity east of Gilroy still continues, but at a reduced level. There are now a total of 7 quakes in a very tight cluster.

On Tuesday 24 April 1984 at 1:15 p.m., an earthquake of Richter magnitude (M) 6.2 occurred near Mt. Hamilton, 16 km (10 miles) east of San Jose, Santa Clara County. This earthquake was felt strongly throughout the San Francisco Bay area, and as far away as Sacramento, 140 km (86 miles) to the north. Fortunately, the epicenter was located in the sparsely populated Coast Ranges. The reported damage was about $7 million. This figure does not include the amount of damage to the high technology industry in the area.

The most dramatic effect was near Morgan Hill, where damage consisted of houses falling off unbraced cripple foundations and incaving of stream banks. Morgan Hill is located 20 km (12 miles) south of the epicenter of the main shock, but only 3 km (2 miles) west of the zone of aftershock epicenters. This is because the aftershock zone propagated some 25 km southeastward along the Calaveras fault from the main shock epicenter.

The southeastern end of the 1984 Morgan Hill aftershock zone coincided with the epicenter of the 1979 Coyote Lake earthquake. The aftershock zone of the 1979 earthquake also extended to the southeast of its main shock. During the 1979 and 1984 earthquake sequences, the Calaveras fault zone ruptured in the subsurface along a total length of 45 km extending to the southeast from Mt. Hamilton. This rupture occurred mainly at earthquake depths of 1 to 10 km below the surface, according to focal depths determined by the U. S. Geological Survey.

The quakes were seeing now are south of the 1979 Coyote Lake earthquake. There are 3 possibilities as to the meaning of these quakes. 1. They are aftershocks of the 1979 quake. 2. They are quakes in their own right and are nothing more then the continue slip of the fault. 3. They are foreshocks to a larger event.

For right now I’m just going to put my heels up and sit back and wait and see what happens. Take Care…Don in creepy town