4.7 earthquake hits Monterey County, felt in Bay Area

MONTEREY, Calif. (KGO) -- Thousands of Bay Area residents got quite a jolt Monday morning. A 4.7 magnitude earthquake struck around 11:30 a.m. on the San Andreas Fault about 12-miles Southeast of Salinas.

"The garage was like boom boom boom everything was like shaking in my office. I have glass shelves and everything. It lasted like maybe 5 seconds," said Jane Shipman a South Bay resident.

Shipman immediately texted her husband when she felt the earthquake at her office in Morgan Hill. The U.S. Geological Survey says the quake was centered in Gonzales in Monterey County.

"Of course, it is a fairly unpopulated area so damage is most likely minimal. A similar event in more populated areas like East Bay along the Hayward or Calaveras fault certainly would have caused more damage," said Ole Kaven, a researcher with the U.S.G.S. in Menlo Park.

The quake was located on the San Andreas Fault line and was widely felt through the Northern Central Coast area. On the U.S.G.S.'s Did You Feel It Map, hundreds of people reported feeling it in San Jose and San Francisco. Researchers say the quake is interesting from a scientific

"It happened in the creeping section where you expect fewer earthquakes certainly of this size and it's an open research question why we get events of this magnitude in what's generally a continually deforming section of the San Andreas," said Kaven.

No major damage or problems were reported. The last time there was any major damage in the Bay Area from an earthquake was the 6.0 in Napa in 2014.

"I'm very concerned about the little small tremors. To me it's like a release of what's going to happen," said Shipman.

Seismologists say data they gather on the quake helps them understand what's happening with the San Andreas Fault.