Fun. I just survived my first "real" earthquake. Although I've been in Berkeley for almost three years, I have only observed two small earthquakes. I didn't even recognize the one my first year as an earthquake because it just "popped." The one this morning was pretty obvious when it happened. Here's the seismograph from the USGS:

The house shook for about 1.5 seconds: glasses clinked, framed photos rattled a bit, and it shook me sitting on the sofa pretty well. I called Giao and she said it also shook the buildings on the UC campus. It's just an absolutely amazing amount of energy that's released during earthquakes. It's hard to fathom...

The USGS-UCB seismic activity page has updated its records, and they're initially estimating the quake at 3.4 local magnitude, centered just 3-4 miles from Berkeley in the Berkeley Hills. It's now a little creepy (the warning sirens are blaring, police sirens going off, etc.) I suspect it's just preventative, in case of aftershocks, but it's still a little surreal.

UPDATE: The Internet is amazing. I found the GPS coordinates for the earthquake. This Google Maps link shows just how close it was!