The first quake, which struck at 1:07 a.m., caused weak to light shaking and no damage, according to preliminary reports from the U.S. Geological Survey. The second struck at 2:06 a.m., and the third came nine minutes later, according to the USGS. All three occurred at a depth of about seven kilometers.

The epicenters of all three earthquakes were just northeast of the UC Berkeley campus in Tilden Regional Park. Tuesday morning’s earthquakes come after a magnitude-3.0 earthquake that shook the area Oct. 6. That quake also had an epicenter in Tilden Park.

The first earthquake was felt as far away as Los Altos, Pleasanton and Daly City, according to the USGS website.

Megan Messerly is a news editor. Contact her at mmesserly@dailycal.org and follow her on Twitter @meganmesserly.

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Kore Chan/Senior Staff

A UC Berkeley student was robbed at gunpoint near Moffitt Library on Sunday evening.

The incident marks the fourth robbery or attempted robbery to occur on campus or on property close to campus since Thursday.

In the Sunday robbery, a UC Berkeley student was walking west on University Drive about 9:11 p.m. when two males approached him, according to a UCPD crime alert released Monday.

One of the perpetrators walked up to the victim, pointed a black handgun at his chest and demanded his cellphone. Before he could comply, the perpetrator pushed the student to the ground. The student dropped his phone, one of the perpetrators picked it up and the two perpetrators fled north on the west side of Haviland Hall, according to the alert.

The armed robbery was the second of its kind this week, after an incident at the intersection of Berkeley Way and Oxford Street early Thursday morning, according to a UCPD crime alert released Thursday. About 5:30 a.m., an armed person struck a 57-year-old UC Berkeley affiliate. The woman fell to the ground, and the perpetrator took her purse and fled the scene.

Later that evening, a 19-year-old student was robbed in front of Unit 3’s Beverly Cleary residence hall while waiting at the shuttle pickup location on Channing Way, according to a UCPD crime alert released Friday. The perpetrator in this incident also pushed the student to the ground before snatching her cellphone and fleeing the scene.

In a fourth incident this weekend, however, a student successfully resisted an attempted theft.

The student was walking between Dwinelle Hall and the Valley Life Sciences Building just after midnight Saturday when three males approached him, according to a UCPD crime alert released Monday. Two of the men stood in front of and behind the student, one issuing verbal threats while the other grabbed his backpack from behind. The student clenched his backpack and began to yell, after which the men fled the scene.

Immediately after each of the four crimes, UCPD searched the area but was unable to locate the perpetrators.

According to a recent Berkeley Police Department report, 221 robberies have occurred within the city from January to June 2013. The report also noted a 67 percent increase  in robberies targeting people with iPhones, smartphones and other small electronic devices in the first six months of 2013 compared with the same months in 2012.

Megan Messerly is a news editor. Contact her at mmesserly@dailycal.org and follow her on Twitter @meganmesserly.

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The student was walking on Campanile Way when he was confronted by three males about 12:40 a.m., according to a UCPD crime alert released Monday. A perpetrator moved in front of the student as another perpetrator grabbed his backpack from behind in an attempt to take it. The perpetrator in front verbally threatened the student, who clenched his backpack and began to yell.

The three suspects fled the scene, running east toward the Campanile. The victim, who was uninjured during the encounter, walked home and called UCPD to report the crime.

UCPD searched the area but was unable to locate the suspects.

According to the UCPD crime alert, the suspects are described as:

Suspect No. 1 — A male, possibly Asian, in his late teens or early 20s, 6 feet in height, with a thin build and dark complexion and wearing a red hooded sweatshirt.

Suspect No. 2 — An Asian male in his late teens or early 20s, 5-foot-10 in height, with a thin build and wearing a black hooded sweatshirt.

Suspect No. 3 — An unknown race male in his late teens or early 20s, 5-foot-10 in height, with a thin build and wearing dark clothing.

Megan Messerly is a news editor. Contact her at mmesserly@dailycal.org and follow her on Twitter @meganmesserly.

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The victim was standing at the shuttle pickup location in front of the residence hall on Channing Way about 7:45 p.m. when she was approached from behind by the perpetrator, according to a UCPD crime alert released Friday. The suspect shoved her and took her cellphone before running west on Channing Way and south on Dana Street.

The victim was not injured during the encounter.

UCPD and Berkeley Police Department searched the area but were unable to locate the perpetrator.

According to the UCPD crime alert, the suspect is described as:

A black male, approximately 19 years old, 5-foot-11 in height, weighing about 170 pounds and wearing a black jacket and blue jeans.

Megan Messerly is a news editor. Contact her at mmesserly@dailycal.org and follow her on Twitter @meganmesserly.

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About 5:30 a.m., the victim was walking in the area when she was grabbed from behind by the perpetrator, who was armed with a handgun, according to a UCPD crime alert released Thursday. The perpetrator demanded the victim’s property, and although she responded that she didn’t have any money, he struck her, after which she fell to the ground. The perpetrator took her purse and ran west on Center Street.

The victim sustained nonlife-threatening injuries during the encounter and declined to receive any medical treatment at the scene.

BPD and UCPD searched the area but were unable to locate the perpetrator.

According to the UCPD crime alert, the suspect is described as:

A black male between 30 and 35 years old, 5-foot-10 in height, weighing about 150 pounds with a thin build, black hair and medium complexion, wearing a black jacket and dark pants.

Megan Messerly is a news editor. Contact her at mmesserly@dailycal.org and follow her on Twitter @meganmesserly.

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Kelly Fang/Senior Staff

Check out our photo gallery of the explosion here.

An explosion on the UC Berkeley campus near California Hall injured several people, prompting officials to declare a state of emergency and order an evacuation of the campus about 6:40 p.m. Monday evening.

Three people were treated on scene for injuries, and one was transported to a hospital with minor burn injuries, according to campus spokesperson Dan Mogulof. At least 20 people were stuck in elevators as a result of an earlier power outage but were freed by 9 p.m., Mogulof said.

The explosion appears to be related to vandalism discovered by the campus late last week, Mogulof said. Vandals were stealing or attempting to steal copper grounding wire from an electrical system not readily visible, and the damage appears to be more extensive than initially believed. The explosion occurred as engineers were restoring power after a campuswide outage about 4:45 p.m., Mogulof said.

The explosion originated in an underground vault beneath a road by California Hall near the center of campus, said UCPD Sgt. Andrew Tucker.

“At first, I was really scared because I thought the explosion was big enough to produce a shock wave,” said sophomore Jennifer Han, who was walking home from a midterm when the explosion happened. “You heard it first, and then there were flames.”

At least four ambulances, fire trucks and multiple police units responded to the incident.

An ammonia leak in Latimer Hall, likely related to the power failure, was contained by Berkeley Fire Department about 6:20 p.m., said UCPD Lt. Marc DeCoulode.

Daily Cal multimedia producer Miles Mathews captured the billowing fire after an explosion on the UC Berkeley campus.

After the explosion, officials instructed everyone to evacuate the campus through the north and west entrances. They also advised people to stay away from manholes on campus.

At 5:30 a.m. on Tuesday, campus officials announced that power had been restored to most buildings on campus and that most classes will meet as scheduled. Eleven buildings remain without power and are not operational: Alumni House, Bancroft Library, California Hall, Central Heating Plant, Doe Library, Durant Hall, Dwinelle Hall, Dwinelle Annex, Edwards Track (East and West areas), Haas Pavillion and EH&S Facility, according to the UC Berkeley public affairs website.

Students should assume classes are cancelled in these buildings for the day and should check in with departments to see if and when classes and events will be rescheduled, and employees in these buildings should check in with supervisors about reporting to work, the website said.

“We’re in uncharted territory,” Mogulof said at a press conference Monday night. “We’ve never seen anything like this before.”

Daily Californian online managing editor Seung Y. Lee took video footage of a plume of smoke erupting from campus as the explosion took place near Wheeler Hall.

Freshman Henry Rowswell described the explosion as a “fireball” that was as tall as California Hall.

Martina Baccari, a Berkeley High School student who was on campus at the time of the incident, said she felt heat in her face directly after the explosion.

Shortly after the power outage, smoke was seen rising from an old power generator near Bancroft Library that kicked in when power went out, said UCPD officer Barry Boersma. It is unclear whether the two incidents are related.

At 6:05 p.m., the campus sent out an alert through its emergency text message system canceling classes and shutting down lab operations for the rest of the day.

The outage affected buildings from Strawberry Canyon to University Hall, including the chancellor’s residence, said Christine Shaff, communications director for Facilities Services. Student housing Units 1, 2 and 3, Maximino Martinez Commons and Foothill also were affected.

The residence halls affected by the outage were being powered by generators Monday evening, Mogulof said. Although parts of buildings remained without power, students were still allowed in, he said.

The outage also affected Cal Dining services Monday evening. Foothill and Crossroads will remain open with limited service, but Cafe 3 and Clark Kerr Campus dining commons will be unaffected, according to the Cal Dining Facebook page.

“We got very, very lucky that there were no serious injuries,” Mogulof said.

UC Berkeley senior Ana Reyes took video footage of the explosion.

Staff writers Adrianna Dinolfo, Chloe Hunt and Chris Yoder contributed to this report. Executive News Editor Sara Grossman also contributed to this story.

Megan Messerly and Jeremy Gordon are news editors. Contact them at newsdesk@dailycal.org and follow the Daily Cal twitter page at @dailycal.

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About 7:43 p.m., the victim, who is affiliated with the campus, was walking along the Grinnell Path from Oxford Street while texting on her iPhone, according to a UCPD crime alert released Tuesday. She put the phone in her pocket, and, as she neared the south side of VLSB, she felt someone run into her.

The male perpetrator took the phone from her pocket, knocking her to the ground, and fled the scene. After a male passer-by chased the perpetrator to the south side of Haas Pavilion, he dropped the phone, and the passer-by retrieved it and returned it to the victim.

The victim suffered minor injuries. After searching the scene, UCPD was unable to locate the perpetrator.

According to the UCPD crime alert, the suspect is described as:

A black male between 20 and 25 years old, 6 feet in height with a medium build, either short hair or bald, wearing a dark-colored hooded sweatshirt with white or light-colored markings on the front and light-colored jeans.

Megan Messerly is a news editor. Contact her at mmesserly@dailycal.org and follow her on Twitter @meganmesserly.

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About 11:30 p.m., the victim was at the intersection when he was approached by the perpetrators. He was knocked to the ground and physically assaulted, sustaining injuries to the head that possibly were the result of being kicked, according to a UCPD crime alert released Tuesday.

The victim was unable to be questioned due to his injuries and was transported to a local trauma center.

The perpetrators were last seen running north through campus. After a joint search of the area by UCPD and Berkeley Police Department, a UCPD officer detained two individuals who matched the suspects’ descriptions.

After witnesses of the robbery and assault failed to positively identify the suspects, one was released, and another was arrested on an outstanding warrant.

The victim reported items were missing from his wallet after the incident.

According to the UCPD crime alert, the suspects are described as:

Suspect No. 1 — A Hispanic male in his 20s, 5-foot-8 in height, medium build, black hair in a ponytail, wearing a white T-shirt and jeans.

Suspects No. 2 and No. 3 — Two Hispanic males in their 20s.

Suspect No. 4 — A black male in his 20s.

Megan Messerly is a news editor. Contact her at mmesserly@dailycal.org and follow her on Twitter @meganmesserly.

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Lawrence Summers withdrew his name from consideration to lead the Federal Reserve in a Sunday letter to the president.

President Barack Obama had been considering Summers and UC Berkeley professor emerita of economics at the Haas School of Business Janet Yellen to replace Ben Bernanke as chair of the Fed.

Yellen, now the front-runner for the position, would be both the first female and first UC Berkeley professor to serve in the position.

Previously, Yellen served as president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco from 2004 to 2010. Currently, Yellen is vice chair of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. She was also chair of President Bill Clinton’s Council of Economic Advisers.

Yellen graduated from Brown University in 1967 with a degree in economics. She holds a doctorate in economics from Yale University, which she received in 1971.

At UC Berkeley, Yellen served as a macroeconomics professor at Haas, beginning in 1980. In 1985 and 1988, Yellen received the school’s Earl F. Cheit Award for Excellence in Teaching.

“In the realm of plausible candidates, she is by far the best,” said Christina Romer, a UC Berkeley economics professor and a former chair of Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers, in a New York Times article.

Summers, previously Secretary of the Treasury, director of the National Economic Council and president of Harvard University, was also being considered by the president as a replacement for Bernanke.

“I have reluctantly concluded that any possible confirmation process for me would be acrimonious and would not serve the interests of the Federal Reserve, the Administration, or ultimately, the interest of the nation’s ongoing economic recovery,” Summers said in his letter to the president Sunday.

Earlier Sunday, the president spoke with Summers about his decision to withdraw from consideration for the chair position.

“Larry was a critical member of my team as we faced down the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, and it was in no small part because of his expertise, wisdom, and leadership that we wrestled the economy back to growth and made the kind of progress we are seeing today,” the president said in a statement. “I will always be grateful to Larry for his tireless work and service on behalf of his country, and I look forward to continuing to seek his guidance and counsel in the future.”

It is expected that the president will nominate someone to the position sometime this fall — as early as this month. Summers’ withdrawal is expected to delay any announcement for at least a week, according to CNN reported.

Megan Messerly is a news editor. Contact her at mmesserly@dailycal.org and follow her on Twitter @meganmesserly.

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An early-morning explosion in an underground high-voltage vault caused power to go out in buildings across campus Thursday.

Power returned to most buildings briefly after the outage around 8:15 a.m., with the exception of several buildings concentrated mainly in the northeastern section of campus, according Shaff.

As of 10:15 a.m., power had yet to be restored to those buildings, including Evans Hall and many of the engineering buildings, Shaff said. Members of the campus community reported outages in McLaughlin and Stanley halls.

“We’re not sure exactly what happened yet,” Shaff said. “But we’re bringing power back up building by building, which right now is the safest way to do it.”

Shaff said that restoring power to all campus buildings would take a couple of hours.

“I’m hoping they cancel classes,” said UC Berkeley graduate student Lewis Lehe, who was waiting outside McLaughlin Hall around 9:40 a.m.

Yet when Lehe walked upstairs to 203 McLaughlin, the classroom was apparently full.

Shaff had not heard reports about whether any classes had been cancelled due to the outage.

Updates to follow.

Megan Messerly is a news editor. Contact her at mmesserly@dailycal.org and follow her on Twitter @meganmesserly.

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