Earthquake

A shallow magnitude 3.0 earthquake was reported Monday evening six miles from Gilroy, Calif., according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The temblor occurred at 10:14 p.m. Pacific time at a depth of 3.7 miles. According to the USGS, the epicenter was eight miles from Hollister, 15 miles from Morgan Hill, 16 miles from Watsonville and 110 miles from Sacramento. In the last 10 days, there have been no earthquakes magnitude 3.0 or greater centered nearby. Read more about Southern California earthquakes .

BEIJING -- A strong earthquake struck China's mountainous Sichuan province Saturday morning, leaving at least 156 people dead and more than 3,000 injured. Chinese authorities assessed the magnitude of the quake at 7.0, while the U.S. Geological Survey reported 6.6. Although nowhere near as powerful in magnitude, the tremor evoked memories of the great earthquake almost exactly five years ago along the same fault line that killed almost 90,000. The earthquake's epicenter was about 80 miles southwest of the provincial capital of Chengdu, in Lushan county near the city of Ya'an.

BEIJING -- Chinese television reported at least two people had been killed Saturday morning when a powerful earthquake shook Sichuan province. The U.S. Geological Survey measured the quake at magnitude 6.6 with a depth of less than eight miles. The official New China News Agency reported that it shook buildings in the Sichuan provincial capital, Chengdu. Several aftershocks were reported. Some flights headed to Chengdu made emergency landings in Chongqing, and flights out of the Chengdu airports were suspended, the news agency reported.

With cellular service in Boston jammed in the aftermath of the marathon explosions this week, many people were left scrambling for ways to let loved ones know they were safe and to search for information on family and friends. Social networks and other websites became the go-to solutions in many cases, as scores of people posted updates saying they were unharmed and offering firsthand accounts and photographs from the scene. Because the Internet wasn't affected, Boston residents used Facebook and Twitter to reach out to large numbers of people at once; they also turned to Apple Inc.'s iMessage, Skype and Google Inc.'s Voice.

Some of the most extensive damage and loss of life from recent earthquakes in California have occurred in apartment houses where dwellings sit on top of a ground-level parking garage or a storefront. The shaking undermines the bottom floor, causing the buildings to collapse and in some cases to pancake. After years of study and debate, San Francisco on Thursday formally adopted a new law requiring owners to retrofit thousands of these so-called wood-frame “soft story” buildings, marking the most sweeping seismic regulations in California in years.

Some of the most extensive damage and loss of life from recent earthquakes in California have occurred in apartment houses where dwellings sit on top of a ground-level parking garage or a storefront. The shaking undermines the bottom floor, causing the buildings to collapse and in some cases to pancake. After years of study and debate, San Francisco on Thursday formally adopted a new law requiring owners to retrofit thousands of these so-called wood-frame soft-story buildings, marking the most sweeping seismic regulations in California in years.