More Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ), Where is the Fault and Hazard in My Area?
I am looking to buy land near the location of a large historical earthquake.
I am wondering where the fault line runs.
What is the seismic activity in the area today?
How did the quake change the contours and elevations of the area?
You will have to do some research on this yourself, either in journals or books or at another web site.
A good first book reference in general for this sort of information is
Stover and Coffman, (1993) Seismicity of the United States, 1568-1989 (Revised), U.S. Geological Survey professional Paper 1527. (This reference ought to be at a large library or can be purchased from the Government Printing Office or the USGS: email <infoservices@usgs.gov>.)
In this reference there is likely to be a brief article on this particular quake, but also information on other historical earthquakes in the vicinity. In the article there will be references to primary data about the earthquake. Your questions about where the fault is and how much the ground was altered are likely to be answered in one or more of those references, which ought to be available at a good university library.
A good first web site for this sort of information is to go to the USGS site for the seismic history of the state where the earthquake is located, visit
http://neic.usgs.gov/neis/general/handouts/general_seismicity.html
and use the link for state by state historical seismicity for the particular state. There are a lot of links there worth following up. If the earthquake you are interested in is sufficiently large, you may be able to find substantial information about that quake at that link. Also there may be links to a state geological survey which may have the information you want.
