Historic Earthquakes

Socorro area, New Mexico
1906 11 15 12:15 UTC
Intensity VII

Largest Earthquake in New Mexico

This earthquake, which increased the property damage already sustained at Socorro, was described as the most severe shock of the year. Four rebuilt chimneys were shaken off the Socorro County Courthouse, and two others were cracked severely. Plaster fell at the courthouse, and a cornice on the northwest corner of the two-story adobe Masonic Temple was thrown onto its first floor. Several bricks fell from the front gable on one house. Plaster was shaken from walls in Santa Fe, about 200 kilometers from the epicenter. Felt over most of New Mexico and in parts of Arizona and Texas.

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.