1994 Northridge earthquake
earthquake
The 1994 Northridge earthquake affected Greater Los Angeles, California, United States, on January 17, 1994, at 04:30:55 PST. The epicenter of the moment magnitude 6.7 (Mw) blind thrust earthquake was beneath the San Fernando Valley. The shock lasted approximately 8 seconds and achieved a peak ground acceleration of over 1.7 g. It is the largest recorded earthquake in the area's history, slightly surpassing the Mw 6.6 1971 San Fernando earthquake. Shaking was felt as far away as San Diego, California; Turlock, California; Las Vegas, Nevada; Richfield, Utah; Phoenix, Arizona; and Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico. Sixty people died and more than 9,000 were injured. In addition, property damage was estimated to be $13–50 billion, making it among the costliest natural disasters in U.S. history.
Geology
The epicenter region of the earthquake was located in the San Fernando Valley, about 30 km (19 mi) northwest of downtown Los Angeles. The United States Geological Survey (USGS) placed the hypocenter's geographical coordinates at 34.213°N 118.537°W / 34.213; -118.537 and at a depth of 11.31 mi (18.20 km). Measuring Mw 6.7, it was the largest earthquake recorded in the Los Angeles area since the 1971 San Fernando earthquake (Mw 6.7). However, unlike the Northridge earthquake, the San Fernando shock occurred on a north–northeast dipping thrust fault beneath the San Gabriel Mountains.
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This entry incorporates text from “1994 Northridge earthquake” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.