SAN JOSE, Calif.—While warnings swirl of imminent destruction along the San Francisco Bay area's Hayward Fault, Tuesday's earthquake was a reminder that there are seven other major faults here capable of producing a significant shake.

The magnitude-5.6 tremor, centered about 9 miles northeast of San Jose, was the strongest to hit the Bay Area since the 1989 Loma Prieta quake, which killed 62 people, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Scientists have warned for decades of another big one—this time on the Hayward, which runs through a 50-mile swath of suburbia east of San Francisco.

Tuesday's temblor, however, came from the lesser-known Calaveras Fault. The quake produced no reports of serious injuries or damage, officials said, but it managed to rattle nerves and homes when it struck shortly after 8 p.m. The shaking was widely felt within an 80-mile radius, as far away as Santa Rosa, Sacramento and Monterey.

Amrit Shergill, a night cashier at Alum Rock Shell gasoline station in San Jose, said only some small items toppled off a shelf—but the intensity of the shaking sent her outside and crouching on the sidewalk.

"My God, I felt like running because the roof might come down on my head," said Shergill, who was born in India. "I've never felt anything like this in 16 years in the United States."

The epicenter was near Alum Rock, in the Diablo Range foothills east of San Jose—not far from home of Mayor Chuck Reed.

Pictures fell off the walls of Reed's house, but he said there was no major damage there.

"It was a pretty strong ride here, a lot of shaking but nothing broken," Reed told The Associated Press in a phone interview from his home. "I've talked to a few people and we have no reports of injuries or damage. There was a lot of shaking, but it wasn't the big one."

The USGS reported about a dozen aftershocks, the biggest with a preliminary magnitude of 2.1.

Local and state authorities fielded a numbers of calls about gas leaks and broken water pipes, but little else related to the quake.

Bay Area public transportation officials said Caltrain and Bay Area Rapid Transit trains halted for several minutes after the quake, then resumed at reduced speeds. There were no reports of injuries or damage to trains, officials said.

Aaron McLear, a spokesman for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, said the state "will review and inspect all important infrastructure," including California's fragile levees in the coming days.

Within two hours after the quake, things were back to normal in the working class neighborhoods of east San Jose. Traffic flowed normally, and eateries and bars remained open for business.

The earthquake occurred on the southern end of the Calaveras, which is only capable of producing a temblor of a magnitude 6.4 or lower, said Tom Brocher, a USGS seismologist in Menlo Park.

"There wasn't any one big, strong wave or jolt—it was this rumbling, nothing else going on," Brocher said. "I knew right away this wasn't a big one."

Scientists, however, predict that the Hayward Fault can produce one in the potentially lethal 6.7 to 7.0 range.

Historically, severe quakes have occurred on the Hayward every 151 years, give or take 23 years. The last one to hit was in 1868, meaning it is now into the danger zone.

The Association of Bay Area Governments estimates such a powerful Hayward quake would wipe out some 155,000 housing units, 37,000 in San Francisco alone.

The Loma Prieta earthquake struck in October 1989, just before the third game of the World Series at Candlestick Park. The tremor, which was centered in the Santa Cruz Mountains on the San Andreas fault, caused nearly $6 billion in damage.

In 2003, a magnitude-6.5 earthquake jolted the Central California coast, pitching an 1892 clock tower building onto the street and killing two people. In 2005, a magnitude-7.1 earthquake struck about 80 miles off the coast of Northern California, briefly prompting a tsunami warning from the Mexican border to British Columbia, but no damage or injuries were reported.