Historic Earthquakes

Parkfield, California
1922 March 10 11:21 UTC
Magnitude 6.1

Houses were damaged severely along the San Andreas fault zone in Monterey and San Luis Obispo Counties. Chimneys fell at Parkfield and in southern Cholame Valley. One house was jolted from its foundation onto the ground, and its porch was displaced 30 cm away from the house. Another severely damaged house was twisted into two parts. A large water tank on a ranch at Cholame was knocked down and broken into pieces, and oil pipelines broke between Shandon and Antelope. A ground crack, 15-30 cm wide and about 800 m long, was reported in Cholame Valley. Small ground cracks also formed in the San Andreas fault zone. Felt from San Jose on the north to Los Angeles on the south and east to Springville (Tulare County). A moderate aftershock occurred on March 16 at 23:11 UTC.

Abridged from Seismicity of the United States, 1568-1989 (Revised), by Carl W. Stover and Jerry L. Coffman, U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 1527, United States Government Printing Office, Washington: 1993.