Like it did in 1906, April 18 falls on a Wednesday this year. And tomorrow morning at 5:11 a.m. the annual commemoration of the Great Quake and fire will take place at Lotta's Fountain at the intersection of Market, Kearny, and Geary Streets. The festivities will continue with the painting of the "fire hydrant that saved the city" at 20th and Church Streets at the upper corner of Dolores Park, followed by the traditional Bloody Mary brunch at Lefty O'Doul's in Union Square. Today at 3 p.m., three of the four remaining survivors of the quake, William Del Monte and Winnie Hook, who are both 106, and George Quilici, 108, will be at the Westin St. Francis for a ceremony. more ›

From now until March 18th, St. Regis' Michelin-starred food joint Ame honors the one-year anniversary of the tsunami and earthquake in Miyagi, Japan, with a special prix fixe dinner option. Dishes inspired by the region, such as their Miyagi Oysters in Ponzu Sauce with Momiji Oroshi and Grilled Scallop on Hitomebore Risotto with Abalone) are part of a five-course menu "that celebrates the culinary sprit of Miyagi, while paying homage to the devastations suffered by its people." more ›

This morning's modest temblor likely woke a lot of you and your beloved dogs and cats up, and at least one local newspaperman would like to hear all about how your pets reacted. more ›

A minor 4.0 quake hit the Bay Area at 5:33 Monday morning, rattling parts of San Francisco and the East Bay. Did you feel it? According to USGS, it was centered in El Cerrito on the Hayward fault. Folks on Twitter described the quake as a "jolt or rumble," "strong," "could've have been just a 4.0," and "I am never ever sleeping naked again!" more ›

Rose Cliver, thought to be the oldest 1906 Great Quake survivor, died on Saturday at the impressive age of 109. According to ABC 7, Cliver was believed to be one of three remaining survivors of the 1906 quake. "Bill DelMonte, a Marin County resident, attended last year's breakfast at the age of 105, while Ruth Newman, who was 109 in April, lives in Pebble Beach." more ›

Another earthquake hit Vallejo this morning, bigger than the one last night. It was reportedly a 3.5 quake. This morning's minor tremor comes on the heels of a similar shaker that hit Vallejo at around 6:10 p.m. on Wednesday. We'll update with any further info, but we suspect there was no damage. more ›

A modest, some might say small, earthquake rumbled along the Hayward Fault just before 4 a.m. this morning, measuring 2.8 on the Richter scale. Unlike the previous half dozen or so small quakes on the fault in recent weeks, this one was not centered under Berkeley but further south, about two miles north of Fremont. more ›

Is the Hayward Fault trying to tell us something? Just shivering a little because the weather turned cold? Anyway, there was another little earthquake over near Berkeley, a 3.2 magnitude, this afternoon at 2:52 p.m. Oh, but your Facebook newsfeed probably already told you that if you didn't feel it yourself. more ›

Following Thursday's small quake, another slight yet significant earthquake rattled the East Bay at 5:36 this morning, centered in Berkeley. This was the latest tremor to hit the Hayward fault in Berkeley over the last couple of weeks. more ›

A small JELL-O Jiggler of a quake hit the East Bay this afternoon. It struck at 3:44 p.m. and measured 3.2. We didn't think much of it until CBS 5 found it necessary to interrupt Judge Judy to tell us all about it. Alas, we now find ourselves writing about it for you, our dear readers, while the honorable Judge Sheindlin rips apart some cad who didn't payback his ex-girlfriend several thousands dollars in loans. Oh blah de, oh blah da. [USGS] more ›

Well, since the earth has taken to shaking a bit the past five days, including those several in the East Bay late last week and the one in Turkey on Sunday that they now say killed over 360, we thought we'd let you know that Japan just had another quake. It's a not-insignificant one at 5.2, and it was centered in the same Fukushima prefecture as the big one in March, about 70 miles south of the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear facility. Yeah, yikes. more ›

Another jolting quake hit the Bay Area Thursday night, coming in at 8:16. Did you feel that one, too? This one measured 4.1 3.9 3.8. And it looks like it's an aftershock to the 4.0 quake that shook Berkeley this afternoon, according to USGS. more ›

A jolt of an earthquake just hit the Bay Area. We felt it deeply in SOMA. You? According to USGS, the tremor was centered in the East Bay near Berkeley at 2:41 p.m. Magnitude is not yet known. more ›

Yet another earthquake hit near San Leandro at 9:58 am. BART will run a bit slower for the next hour or so. This most recent quake follows last night's 3.6 quake that stuck in San Leandro, which followed scores of Californians thumbing their noses at the East Coast for overacting to a hefty 5.8 quake in Virginia. more ›

On the heels of Virginia's big (?) earthquake, the Bay Area felt a 3.6 tremor hit late Tuesday night. By comparison, the quake was small and occurred a little before 11:40 pm. A few (snide yet choice) remarks from our late-night Facebook commenters report: more ›

Sweet payback for each time an East Coaster lambasted Californians for losing it over the slightest chill in the air, reactions to today's earthquake have ranged from the humorous to the bizarre. Especially for those of us who suffered through Loma Prieta or Northridge. For example, Jersey Shore star Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi tweeted that the end was nigh, saying, "2012 is near, I knew it! I hope everyones okay!!!" more ›

We're getting reports that an earthquake just shook a huge swath of the East Coast, from as far north as Boston south to North Carolina. Ooop - our cohorts at Gothamist HQ report it was a 5.8, centered in Virginia! Craziness... and clearly everyone over there, unaccustomed to such things, is freaking out. more ›

Did you feel it? A small tremor shook San Francisco this afternoon at 2:57 p.m., right on the 105-year anniversary of the Great Quake of 1906. According to USGMC, the earthquake registered 3.8, located just south of San Francisco and 2 miles south of Pacifica. We'll update as soon as we know more about today's minor anniversary nudge. more ›

Today marks the 105-year anniversary of the Great Earthquake of 1906. This morning's annual bell-ringing homage at Lotta's Fountain was a more somber affair than in the past due to the recent earthquake in Japan. With that, we think the The City That Has Fallen (1933) by William Marion Reedy, pulled together by Alexis Madrigal of The Atlantic, gives a gripping and sobering account of that happened during the Great Quake. "I ran across it in a slim little volume tucked away in the Berkeley library, a reprint of the original from 1933," Madrigal explains. "The essay is a sidelong, scattershot tour through the American conception of 'Frisco.' " more ›

We wake up today to hearing about yet another earthquake in Japan, the strongest aftershock to date in fact, nearly a month after the 9.0 magnitude quake that ravaged parts of the country. Today's quake was a 7.4, at a depth of 25 miles under the sea, off the coast of Miyagi prefecture, about 60 miles from Sendai. Shaking was felt in Tokyo for about a minute, 215 miles from the epicenter. Shallower quakes than this tend to be more destructive, however a new tsunami warning has gone out across the already beleaguered northeastern coast for a wave of up to one meter. more ›

We've reported on it before, but in the wake of the Japan earthquake, and a two-day meeting of seismologist at UC Berkeley, there's a renewed push to get an earthquake early-warning system set up in California. Japan had such a system, and it was able to give people in Tokyo 25-30 seconds to take cover before the March 11 earthquake struck. Nearer the epicenter, in Sendai, they only had about five seconds warning, because this early warning system is, actually, a little limited. (Unlike this guy's prediction methods, which give us days or weeks warning but are generally wrong.) more ›

Have you ever wanted to have an intimate dinner with Supervisor Jane Kim? Ride your bike alongside Supervisor David Chiu? Sup with Supervisor David Campos at Moki's? Well then, head over to to Som on Wednesday (tomorrow!) for the S.F. Board of Supervisors Fundraiser for Japan. In addition to wonks galore, there will be a presentation from the Consulate General of Japan, DJ tunes by local resident B-Haul (Tasty), lots of booze, and a silent auction. Said auction, featuring goodies offered by your Supervisors, will include the following items: more ›

Be prepared for a ton of radiation news, if not an actual "plume" of harmful radiation, in the coming days and weeks. For now, President Obama, Berkeley scientists, and everyone who knows anything would like you to please go on about your lives, and don't believe all the hype and those mis-leading animations about the radiation plume coming from Japan and engulfing the West Coast. more ›

That would be Mama Cass, of the Mamas and the Papas. We'll say no more. more ›

We do not want to cause any alarm, and other earthquake prediction folks have been wrong plenty of times in the past, but one prominent dude in the suspect science of earthquake prediction, Jim Berklund, has come out saying that one of the most major seismic windows in recent history is approaching between March 19 and 26. Berklund believes in connections between full moons, tides, and magnetic field changes leading to seismic activity. He's been at this for a while, and did happen to publish something in the Santa Cruz Sentinal warning of a coming quake just days before Loma Prieta. He points to shifts in the Earth's magnetic fields, which he believes are responsible for the recent mass fish die-off in Redondo Beach, as a contributing factor to his prediction. Where in California this will happen and how big it will be he doesn't know -- a vagueness which contributes to his self-touted accuracy rate on his website (which he seems to have stopped updating last year). more ›

A tipster let us know about this remarkable email that was sent to Digg's Kevin Rose from a friend and Apple employee in Tokyo detailing Apple's swift and ample support during the Tohoku Earthquake and subsequent 118 aftershocks on Friday. The company was not only a comfort to hundreds of stranded residents who flocked to their store in Tokyo's shopping district, but Apple was also a thriving lifeline to hundreds of its stranded employees and their families. more ›

By now most of you have seen ample footage of the tsunami that followed Friday's massive earthquake in Japan. We want you to look at one more, please. According to RussianToday: "[the footage shows] the moment the tsunami struck Japan's northeast coast. Residents of the port town of Kamaishi in Iwate prefecture watched in horror as the first huge tsunami waves hit, sweeping away cars and buildings. One group managed to scramble to safety on higher ground, where they watched as the water surged towards them." more ›

SoMa's Fourth Street Bar & Grill wants you to celebrate today's tsunami and its survivors with a (humorous?) happy hour. more ›

After an 8.9 earthquake in Japan caused a tsunami to reached the California coast, Governor Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency. "Gov. Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency for Del Norte, Humboldt, San Mateo and Santa Cruz counties, saying 'conditions of extreme peril to the safety of persons and property exist due to the tsunami and water surge' there," reports the Chronicle. more ›