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San Francisco hit by 4.3-magnitude earthquake that shakes sleeping Bay Area residents

The earthquake was widely felt across the Bay Area, but no injuries were immediately reported

Isabel Keane
in New York
Monday 22 September 2025 15:18 BST
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A 4.3-magnitude earthquake shook much of the Bay Area awake early Monday morning, but there were no reports of injuries.
A 4.3-magnitude earthquake shook much of the Bay Area awake early Monday morning, but there were no reports of injuries. (EMSC)

San Francisco Bay Area residents were jolted awake by a magnitude 4.3 earthquake just before 3 a.m. Monday.

The tremor resounded throughout the Bay Area at 2:56 a.m., with the earthquake’s center located near the University of California campus in Berkeley, according to the United States Geological Survey.

The USGS had initially reported that the earthquake was a magnitude 4.6, but later revised it to a magnitude 4.4 and then a magnitude 4.3. It was at a depth of about 4.8 miles.

While the earthquake was strong enough to knock things off counters and scare pets, the San Francisco Fire Department said there have been no reports of major damage, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

There were no reports of injuries as of about 5 a.m. local time, but the quake was still widely felt across the Bay Area.

A 4.3-magnitude earthquake shook much of the Bay Area awake early Monday morning, but there were no reports of injuries.
A 4.3-magnitude earthquake shook much of the Bay Area awake early Monday morning, but there were no reports of injuries. (EMSC)

“While 911 received an increase in calls from people who felt shaking, there have been no reports of injuries in San Francisco at this time,” the city’s Department of Emergency Management posted on X. The department said it has not received any damage reports.

Residents on Monday reported feeling “light” shakes as far north as Santa Rosa and Sacramento, and as south as Santa Cruz, according to USGS. Locals took to social media to vent about being jolted awake by the quake.

“Just had an #earthquake here in San Francisco. My whole apartment shook back and forth but everything is OK. Back to bed at 3 am.,” one person wrote.

Another chimed in: “Just felt an earthquake in San Francisco. Woke up to shaking noises and bed shaking.”

“We just got a BIG A** EARTHQUAKE here in San Francisco. This is the scariest one I've ever experienced!” another person wrote.

The earthquake location was also close to the Hayward fault line, according to the California Geological Survey.

The Hayward is one of the most dangerous fault lines in the Bay Area, according to UC Berkeley’s Seismology Lab, which notes on its website that Hayward “has a 33 percent chance of rupturing in a 6.7 magnitude earthquake or greater before 2043.”

The Bay Area also has a 72 percent chance of having at least a magnitude 6.7 earthquake in that same time frame, according to the researchers.

The earthquake’s center was in Berkeley, not far from the University of California-Berkeley campus.
The earthquake’s center was in Berkeley, not far from the University of California-Berkeley campus. (EMSC)

There was no threat of a tsunami forming in the wake of Monday’s earthquake, the National Tsunami Center wrote on social media.

More minor earthquakes bring a small chance, about 5 percent, that a larger earthquake will come within a few days, geological experts previously told the Chronicle.

There may also be small aftershocks felt within the Bay Area.

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