June was off to a bumpy start in the Bay Area. Three separate tremors happened in the early morning hours of Sunday, June 3rd. The first at 1:40 AM rattled the leeward side of the Berkeley Hills two miles north of Orinda. It was a M2.2, barely perceptible but to

Turkey’s tectonic predicament, responsible for the massive quake that struck Kahramanmaras at 4:17 Monday morning, looks awfully familiar.  The tectonic situation in Turkey nearly mirrors California’s. Similar mechanics are at work here. Our dominant faults shove landmasses past one another in opposing directions, much like theirs. The major difference is,

The Huge Release Party for the Literary Magazine In case you haven’t heard, we just put out an incredible literary magazine called The Dreams I Dreamt: Letters to San Francisco thanks to a grant from the Civic Joy Fund. It’s a gift to San Francisco, where 19 of The City’s

In June I wrote about the threat to San Francisco posed by Mount Konocti, specifically the Clear Lake Volcanic Field. People seem to have forgotten the volcano, I lamented. Our earthquakes, landslides, and wildfires tend to overshadow California’s windows to the furnace churning beneath our feet. Scientists previously estimated the

The noise woke my partner first. I heard it distantly, still ascending from the depths of a REM cycle. Its robotic voice, preceded by a red-alert siren, warned of impending shaking. Knowing that it’s safest to stay in bed if an earthquake strikes at night, we looked at each other

After months of seismic unrest, Hawai’i’s largest volcano Mauna Loa began erupting.  At 11:30 PM Sunday evening, the floor of Moku‘āweoweo, Mauna Loa’s enormous caldera, split open. Lava soon flooded the crater and spilled out on the mountain’s broad, rocky slopes. Scientists familiar with the truly massive volcano (33,500+ feet

A M2.9 earthquake struck just south of Half Moon Bay shortly before 9:30 last night. Residents of San Mateo and Redwood City also reported feeling the jolt. It happened at a depth of 10.4 kilometers, or 6.4 miles, beneath the rugged coastline within the San Gregorio Fault Zone. The San

Tuesday’s M5.1 was the strongest to strike the Bay Area since the South Napa earthquake in 2014. That event, a M6.0, resulted in one death and dozens of injuries. The quake occurred on the Calaveras Fault, known among geologists as a “creeping fault.” It usually moves aseismically, or without producing

You know about Loma Prieta whether you’re from here or not. It’s the World Series earthquake, the quake of ’89, the One that Brought Down the Bridge. The mark it left on the consciousness and infrastructure of Northern California cuts through scientific and social communities alike. There’s a reason we