The early morning quake on Thursday, Jan. 4 was measured at 4.5 on the Richter scale.

An earthquake woke many Berkeleyans shortly after 2:39 a.m. Thursday.

According to early data provided by the US Geological Service, the quake had its epicenter 13 kilometers under Claremont Avenue, just near the Claremont Hotel. Part of the Hayward fault runs along the Berkeley side of the East Bay hills. The first data from the USGS measured the quake at Magnitude 4.7. Within minutes it was downgraded to a 4.5, and by around 9 a.m. it was being reported as a 4.4.

Despite the early hour, local Twitter went momentarily crazy over the quake, many replying to Berkeleyside’s early tweet.

https://twitter.com/jnlaird1/status/948867730794430464

https://twitter.com/alexanderhbentz/status/948871804474372101

https://twitter.com/KateDrawsKawaii/status/948874112180588544

https://twitter.com/narodnichestvo/status/948879342234320896

You can report how the earthquake felt to you to the USGS.

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Lance Knobel (Berkeleyside co-founder) has been a journalist for nearly 40 years. Much of his career was in business journalism. He was editor-in-chief of both Management Today, the leading business magazine...