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- January 5, 1995
-
- Weekly Earthquake Report for Southern California
- ------------------------------------------------
- December 29, 1994 - January 4, 1995
-
- Prepared by: Kate Hutton, Seismological Laboratory
- (kate@bombay.gps.caltech.edu)
- Lucy Jones, U.S. Geological Survey
- California Institute of Technology
-
- This document is a commentary on current seismic activity. The
- earthquakes discussed have been detected and processed
- automatically. All epicenters and magnitudes have been reviewed
- to exclude obvious blunders; however, they must still be
- considered preliminary. For further information, please contact
- the authors or the Caltech Public Relations Office at 818-395-6326.
- For daily updates, call our Earthquake Information Hotline:
- 818-395-6977.
- --------------------------------
- This week's Report covers the time period from midnight Thursday
- morning, December 29, 1994, Pacific Standard Time, to midnight
- Wednesday night, January 4, 1995, Pacific Standard Time. We
- recorded 269 earthquakes of M1.0 or larger during the 7-day period
- covered.
- It was another quiet week. There were only two M3+ quakes
- in our monitoring area, excluding the two in northern Baja.
- The largest event was a M3.3 Northridge aftershock early
- Friday morning. It was felt, as was a much smaller event (M2.6)
- yesterday (Wednesday) evening. The other M3+ was in the Coso Range
- east of Haiwee Reservoir: a M3.0 on Friday morning. The latter was
- part of a small swarm, which is a common occurence in the Coso area.
- With the New Year, comes the quarterly statistical summary.
- 1994 was an active year, with a total of 27,349 quakes recorded
- (all magnitudes). This is between twice and three times what a
- "quiet" year would be. 556 of these were M3.0 or larger, the largest
- one being, of course, Mw6.7 (the Northridge earthquake). As of the
- end of the year, the breakdown by magnitude of the Northridge
- sequence itself was as follows:
- All events 11,031
- 3.0 - 3.9 367
- 4.0 - 4.9 48
- 5.0 and up 9
- A similar breakdown for the Landers sequence (April 23, 1992 through
- the end of 1994) was as follows:
- All events 45,000+
- 3.0 - 3.9 1,474
- 4.0 - 4.9 158
- 5.0 and up 21
- We still aren't finished with the data processing, hence the lower
- limit on the total number of events.
- As for the coming year, statistically speaking, the
- Northridge sequence should produce about 17 M3's, about two M4's,
- and has about a 25% chance of producing another M5. The expected
- number of aftershocks for the Landers/Big Bear sequence is similar:
- about 32 M3's, about 3 M4's, and about a 25% chance of another M5.
- By comparison, the chance of an independent M5+ earthquake somewhere
- in southern California (including all the sparsely populated areas)
- is about 80%.
- The table lists the quakes this week that were M2.0 or
- larger in the central part of the coverage area. Times are local
- times; if you want Greenwich Mean Time, add 7 hrs to the Pacific
- Daylight Time or 8 hrs to the Pacific Standard Time listed.
-
- Table 1
- -------
- Date Time N Lat. W Long. Mag
- -------------------------------------------------------------
- 12/29 9:16 am 33 47.5 117 6.0 2.4 8 mi. WNW of Hemet
- 12/29 9:45 am 34 19.3 118 46.2 2.0 4 mi. NW of Simi Valley
- 12/29 10:45 am 34 6.3 116 44.7 2.2 4 mi. E of Mt. San Gorgonio
- 12/29 1:57 pm 34 20.0 118 49.9 2.0 6 mi. SE of Fillmore
- 12/29 3:03 pm 33 46.0 116 8.8 2.2 5 mi. NE of Indio
- 12/29 5:37 pm 34 11.7 116 51.5 2.3 4 mi. S of Big Bear City
- 12/29 6:22 pm 34 19.5 118 28.4 2.1 3 mi. NNW of San Fernando
- 12/30 2:03 am 34 19.1 118 24.3 3.3 3 mi. NE of San Fernando; FELT
- 12/30 7:21 am 34 44.3 120 7.8 2.0 9 mi. N of Solvang
- 12/30 7:24 am 34 19.4 118 28.1 2.0 3 mi. NNW of San Fernando
- 12/30 8:22 am 36 7.6 117 50.3 3.0 5 mi. E of Haiwee Reservoir
- 12/30 8:25 am 36 7.2 117 50.6 2.5 "
- 12/30 10:08 am 34 21.5 118 39.2 2.2 5 mi. SW of Magic Mtn.
- 12/30 12:40 pm 36 7.4 117 49.6 2.2 5 mi. E of Haiwee Reservoir
- 12/30 12:56 pm 36 7.2 117 50.4 2.1 "
- 12/30 4:07 pm 32 21.9 115 21.6 3.6 22 mi. SSE of Calexico
- 12/31 1:39 am 34 47.5 116 17.8 2.0 35 mi. SSW of Baker
- 12/31 3:51 am 34 23.5 119 22.0 2.2 8 mi. NNW of Ventura
- 12/31 7:21 am 34 27.9 119 21.6 2.7 6 mi. WNW of Ojai
- 12/31 5:01 pm 33 43.6 118 49.7 2.2 18 mi. S of Pt. Dume
- 12/31 7:27 pm 34 23.6 119 21.5 2.1 7 mi. WSW of Ojai
- 1/1 6:05 am 34 15.7 116 27.1 2.1 9 mi. N of Yucca Valley
- 1/1 7:13 am 34 9.5 116 26.2 2.0 2 mi. N of Yucca Valley
- 1/1 1:45 pm 33 55.8 117 54.8 2.2 1 mi. NW of Brea
- 1/1 3:41 pm 33 0.8 116 22.2 2.0 14 mi. ESE of Julian
- 1/1 8:04 pm 34 14.9 116 25.9 2.2 9 mi. N of Yucca Valley
- 1/2 12:55 am 35 2.4 116 59.6 2.0 10 mi. N of Barstow
- 1/2 3:32 am 32 8.6 115 2.7 3.2 44 mi. SE of Calexico
- 1/2 7:49 am 34 16.1 118 27.6 2.2 1 mi. SW of San Fernando
- 1/2 7:00 pm 34 0.8 116 19.3 2.3 10 mi. SE of Yucca Valley
- 1/2 7:23 pm 34 16.2 118 27.9 2.1 1 mi. WSW of San Fernando
- 1/3 7:37 am 32 16.1 115 19.5 2.6 29 mi. SSE of Calexico
- 1/3 8:03 am 34 23.9 119 22.3 2.6 7 mi. WSW of Ojai
- 1/3 4:26 pm 34 27.6 116 31.1 2.9 24 mi. N of Yucca Valley
- 1/3 6:23 pm 35 2.1 116 60.0 2.3 10 mi. N of Barstow
- 1/3 6:30 pm 35 59.9 117 47.8 2.6 9 mi. ESE of Coso Junction
- 1/3 8:05 pm 33 38.9 118 33.5 2.3 11 mi. SW of Palos Verdes
- Point
- 1/3 8:09 pm 34 14.6 118 33.4 2.6 2 mi. NW of Northridge, FELT
- -------------------------------------------------------------
-
- Figure 1. A map of southern California showing the earthquakes
- recorded during the past week by the Caltech/USGS Seismic
- Network. Major faults are marked, as well as the metropolitan
- areas of Los Angeles (L.A.), Palm Springs (P.S.), San Diego
- (S.D.), and Santa Barbara (S.B.). The circles denote the
- earthquakes, the size of the circle indicating the magnitude.
-
-