California quake report was incorrect - US official

[dipsydoodle]

The US Geological Survey has withdrawn a report saying that a magnitude 5.0 earthquake has hit northern California.

It said the report was issued because scientists had not reviewed an automated alert, a geophysicist was quoted as saying by Reuters agency.

Paul Caruso told the agency that the tremor had not happened.

The USGS had earlier reported on its website that a magnitude 5.0 earthquake struck north-east of Napa at a depth of 3.1 miles (5km).

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/8655540.stm

Whoops.

[Duer 157099]

1. I knew this would start happening after I read about

how they were proposing using laptops as seismic detectors...

(there was a thread here somewhere recently about that)