San Francisco Blog

What's shaking -- literally.

As someone who has, for his entire existence, lived atop an earthquake fault and in buildings where "insulation" translates to "put on a sweater," the question posed in the headline has come up dozens of times. Was that the San Andreas Fault -- or Sam and Andreas upstairs?

Thankfully, however, the United States Geological Survey long ago produced this Web site that definitively reveals whether you'd have been better off ducking under the bed or thumping a broomstick on the ceiling.

This site tracks every known earthquake fault in the San Francisco area, and notes recent activity with size- and color-coded markers. The bigger the tab, the bigger the quake. And yellow, blue, and red indicate whether the temblor was recorded in the last week, day, or hour.

And, if the disturbance was indeed due to amorous neighbors -- and you wish to, say, force them onto a skiff and push it into the ocean -- then the same site comes equipped with a to-the-minute page charting Bay wind patterns.