PLEASANTON – Two earthquakes centered just outside Pleasanton left some people in the area rattled, while they amounted to barely a tremor for others.
According to the U. S. Geological Survey, the strongest of the two was a magnitude 3.9 and struck after 11:30 p.m. Tuesday.
The second quake, a magnitude 3.2, was recorded shortly before 1 a.m. Wednesday.
“I was scared,” Paul Riggs said. “All of a sudden, I felt a boom. The dog started barking. I jumped out of bed and flipped on the light.”
Riggs lives in a community known as Black Hill, located about 14 miles outside Pleasanton.
His home is just a few miles from the quake’s epicenter, which the USGS recorded about 12 miles east of the city.
When the first one hit, Riggs didn’t know what to think at first. He said he heard a loud boom that sounded like an explosion.
“[I] thought, well, maybe something hit my house or hit the gate,” he said.
As it turned out, there was no damage — at his home or anywhere else.
Dispatchers for the local police department and sheriff’s office said they had not received any calls about damage as of early Wednesday morning.
“One picture had fallen off a window, the edge of a window,” Riggs said.
He says the commotion did cause his wife to have a sleepless night. He, however, eventually was able to go back to sleep.
Jennifer Garcia, meanwhile, never went to bed. She spent the night working at a Pleasanton supermarket, where things were business as usual.
“We’ve been surrounded by loud noises all night with construction workers,” Garcia said. “I’m shocked and surprised. I didn’t really feel anything.”
Most people in Pleasanton who spoke to KSAT 12 News said they were unaware of the tremors and slept through them.
One convenience store clerk working overnight said he found out only after getting an alert on his phone.
Riggs said what he experienced was a first, and he hopes, the last earthquake to hit home.
“I hope there’s not anymore around here,” he said.
Data from the USGS shows there was one other earthquake in the Pleasanton area this week.
The record shows that a magnitude 2.1 quake struck during the noon hour Monday.
It also says the agency did not receive any reports of people feeling that earlier earthquake.