Historic Earthquakes

Parkfield, California
1934 June 08 04:47 UTC (local time June 07)
Magnitude 6.1

A series of earthquakes occurred in the Parkfield area from June 5 to 14. The strongest foreshock on June 8 at 04:30 UTC caused damage in and around Parkfield and Stone Canyon. The principal earthquake, which occurred 17 minutes later, caused severe damage at Parkfield - a concrete-block house was wrecked, walls fell, and chimneys were downed. Highway bridges near Parkfield shifted slightly on their footings. Chimneys were knocked down in the area along the San Andreas fault from Stone Canyon to the southern boundary of Monterey County.

On Middle Mountain, northwest of Parkfield, two zones of cracks about 7.5 meters wide formed in the soil parallel to the surface traces of two faults in the San Andreas system. The largest single crack was about 17 meters long and 46 cm deep. Neither vertical nor horizontal displacement, however, was observed along the cracks. Felt to Alviso in the north, Santa Ana in the south, and Kernville in the east.

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.