Northern California shaken by strongest quake in 13 years SAN FRANCISCO (AP)-Northern California's strongest earthquake in 13 years rocked a 350-mile wedge of the state in two sweeps of at least 10 secor- ds each yesterday, toppling light poles, knocking out power, and shaking skyscrapers. There were no immediate reports of serious injuries, and damage apparently was minor. The tremor, which registered 5.9 on the Richter scale, hit at 10:06 a.m. PDT and was the third quake in less than four months to be felt throughout the San Francisco Bay area. "It knocked me right out of my chair," said Jim Iverson, a California Highway Patrol official in Salinas, 20 miles southwest of the temblor's recor- ded epicenter. "At first it was a buckling motion and then it felt like we were rowing. I've never seen a hallway twisting like that." THE UNIVERSITY of California Seismographic Station in Berkeley measured the quake and plotted its epicenter at 18 miles north of Hollister on the Calaveras Fault. The quake was felt well into Southern California, with vibrations recorded as far south as Encino, 15 miles north of Los Angeles, said Nate Hutton, a seismologist with the California In- situte of Technology. A May 7 quake, also located on the Calaveras Fault about five miles west of Mt. Hamilton, registered 4.9 on. the Richter scale. Witnesses said dogs barked for two hours before it struck. THE AREA also was rocked April 27 by a quake registering 4.3 on the Richter scale and centered near Burlingame, a San Francisco suburb. That one was along the San Andreas Fault, the state's longest and most ac- tive. The Calaveras Fault is a major bran- ch of the San Andreas Fault. It splits off from the San Andreas Fault near Hollister and runs northwest through the expanding communities of Santa Clara, Alamenda and Contra Costa. The proximity of the two earlier quakes was described at the time as "pure coincidence" by Dr. Robert Uhrhammer, chief seismologist at the Berkeley campus. MONDAY'S QUAKE was felt throughout the San Francisco Bay area, as far east as Sacramento and as far south as Bakerfield and Arroyo Grande, a coastal community 170 miles south of here. Most witnesses felt a rolling, pitching motion like the deck of a ship in moderate seas. "It felt like the house was going to shake apart," said Barry Breckling, head ranger at the Henry W. Coe State Park, a few miles north of the opicen- ter. "We felt one that seemed to last for more than 10 seconds." A FELTON woman was taken to a Santa Cruz County hospital with a broken leg after she was knocked to the floor of her home, authorities said. The leg had just been removed from a cast a week earlier for a similar break. In Hollister, police reported bricks falling from cornices. Six persons were taken to hospitals, most with heart at- tack symptoms. There were no other immediate reports of injuries or significant damage. Hollister is a farming town of 8,000 residents nestled among mountains about 80 miles south of here. It has gained a reputation as the earthquake capital of the state for its frequent tremors. THE STRONGEST EARTHQUAKE ever recorded in northern California, struck yesterday, shaking buildings, and scattering merchandise from such places as the Mid-Town Market in Salinas, No one was hurt in the quake which register5d 5.n the R,.hteral W MONDAY NIGHT IS "RWEDNESDAY "5 "GUEST NIGHT" "BARGAIN DAY" TWO ADULTS $1.50 UNTIL 5:30 ADMITTED FOR THE PRICE OF ONE Crazy Submerged oilfrom gulf threatens Texas beaches CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas (AP)- screens below the surface to trap the Divers reported yesterday that tar submerged oil. The possible environ- balls 2 inches thick from the world's mental effects of such an effort were worst oil spill are clumped 40 feet below being researched, he said. the surface of the Gulf of Mexico, National Oceanic and Atmospheric raising new fears for the Texas shore Administration scientist John Robinson when the slick hits today. said he has never seen oil move beneath "Unfortunately, we do not have the the surface in large quantities. capability to handle what may be But Robinson added there is more oil coming below the surface," said Capt. spewing from the blown-out Mexican Roger Madson, the Coast Guard officer well in the Bay of Campoche then in any in charge of protecting sensitive inland previous spill. The well, about 500 miles areas from the spill, south of Texas, has been gushing since The northern edge of the crude oil June 3. spill, which has been spurting into the "IT'S TRAVELED such great Gulf since a Mexican oil well blew out distances. ,We've-never seen anything two months ago, is expected to hit this big," he said. "No one has ever Texas beaches starting today, officials dealt with submerged oil before. We're say. working with as many ideas as we cn GOVERNMENT SCIENTISTS say come up with." the fine-grained sand of the coastal Robinson said thq divers found 75 beaches will be relatively easy to clean, particles of oil per cubic foot of water in but National Fish and Wildlife officials the limited area they tested. The sub- and volunteers were on alert to clean oil merged tar balls ranged in size from from any of the abundant birds that three-eighths of an inch to 2 inches in inhabit the area. diameter. Madson said the primary goal of his "Whether or not we can come up with defenses is to keep the oil out of the a viable solution remains to be seen," Brazos Santiago Pass-a 1,200-foot path Robinson said. that leads to inland waters. Robinson said the submerged oil The Coast Guard has placed 1,500 feet probably is not traveling as quickly as of floating barricades, effective against the surface crude. Sunday flights over floating oil in previous spills, across the the slick showed oil threatening pass, but the barrier extends only 32 in- Mexican beaches eight miles below the ches below the surface, mouth of they Rio Grande, which MADSON SAID officials were con- separates Mexico from the United, sidering stretching large nets or States.