Earthquake San Francisco and Bay Area Today: Live Map

Key context

What is normal within 100 km of San Francisco

Over the 30 years 1996-2025, USGS recorded 411 earthquakes of M3 or more within 100 km of San Francisco: about 14 a year, or 1.1 a month. The past 12 months had 32, about 134% more than the 30-year average. Quakes of M6 or more average 0 a year here (1 in 30 years), and none happened in the past 12 months.

Busy years usually mean one large quake and its aftershocks: the peak year here was 1997 with 30. Counts cover a circle with a 100 km (62 mile) radius around the Bay, from Santa Rosa to Monterey Bay and from the coast to the Central Valley. They come from the USGS ComCat catalog, which records small quakes more completely in the US than elsewhere, so compare like with like.

Largest earthquakes recorded within 100 km of San Francisco

Plates and faults

The Bay Area straddles the boundary between the Pacific and North American plates. Here the plate motion is shared by the San Andreas Fault on the Peninsula and a set of parallel faults in the East Bay, mainly the Hayward, Calaveras and Concord-Green Valley faults.

The 1906 San Francisco quake (M7.9) broke more than 400 km of the San Andreas; the 1989 Loma Prieta quake (M6.9) hit the Santa Cruz Mountains; and the 2014 South Napa quake (M6.0) came from the West Napa Fault. The Hayward Fault, under Berkeley, Oakland and Fremont, last had a large quake in 1868.

• San Andreas Fault (Peninsula and Santa Cruz Mountains)
• Hayward Fault (East Bay, last large quake 1868)
• Calaveras Fault (frequent small quakes near San Ramon and Gilroy)
• Rodgers Creek Fault (Santa Rosa)
• Concord-Green Valley and Greenville faults
• The Geysers (many small quakes from geothermal production)

Where the recent quakes were

Of the 3 quakes of the past 30 days, 3 were shallow (less than 70 km deep), 0 intermediate (70-300 km) and 0 deep (more than 300 km). 0 reached M4 or more. The places USGS named most often were Pacifica, CA (1), Seven Trees, CA (1), Yountville, CA (1).

Official sources and warnings

• USGS ShakeAlert and the MyShake app: early warnings for the Bay Area through Wireless Emergency Alerts, Android phones and MyShake.
• Berkeley Seismology Lab: Northern California quake monitoring and research.
• USGS Earthquake Science Center (Moffett Field): the USGS team that studies Bay Area faults.

What to do in an earthquake

If you feel shaking: Drop, Cover and Hold On until it stops. Stay away from windows and heavy furniture, and do not run outside during the shaking. On a coast, strong or long shaking is a natural tsunami warning: move to high ground or inland at once, on foot if you can. Then follow your local officials; this page is not a warning service.

In the Bay Area, Drop, Cover and Hold On, and keep emergency alerts on so ShakeAlert warnings reach you. Many small Bay Area quakes come from The Geysers geothermal field north of Santa Rosa and are not a sign of a larger quake.