Residents of California’s Bay Area were rattled Friday when a magnitude 3.7 earthquake struck 1.3 miles north of Millbrae, with an epicenter right under San Francisco International Airport.
The quake hit at 6:38 p.m. local time, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, and was felt in San Francisco, Oakland, and other California municipalities.
Airport officials conducted runway inspections during a temporary pause in airport operations, with things returning to normal just before 7 p.m. local time, a San Francisco International Airport spokesperson told the San Francisco Chronicle.
The quake did alarm Californians as they drove home during rush hour, but there has been no report of damages yet, the San Francisco Department of Emergency Management said in a post on X.
“This is basically your garden variety earthquake. It’s when events start getting quite a bit bigger like magnitude five and magnitude six when we begin thinking about what might happen next,” Robert de Groot, who works at the U.S. Geological Survey, told the Chronicle.
The airport lies near the San Andreas fault, which traverses California from north to south. In the event of a more serious quake, the air traffic control tower is designed to withstand a tremor of magnitude 8.0 or less, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
• Brad Matthews can be reached at bmatthews@washingtontimes.com.
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