Today in Earthquake History

Today's Earthquake Fact:
The term seismic seiche was first coined by Anders Kvale in 1955, to describe oscillation of lake levels in Norway and England caused by the Assam earthquake of August, 1950.

Year at a Glance

December

Note: All earthquake dates are UTC, not local time.

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Year	Location	Magnitude	Comment

1957	Gobi-Altay, Mongolia	8.1	Thirty deaths. All houses were destroyed in Dzun Bogd and Bayan Gobi. Subsidence, faulting and fissures occurred in the Bahar Uula and Ih Bogd Uul Mountains. The largest fissure was 250 km (155 mi) long with as much as 9-11 m (30-36 ft) of vertical and 3 m (10 ft) of horizontal offset. Because of the extremely sparse population in the area, this is perhaps the least damaging great earthquake to have occurred on land in the 20th Century; the direct opposite of the Agadir, Morocco earthquake of 29 Feb 1960.

1972	Japan	7.4	The earthquake struck the Japanese island of Hachijojima 325 kilometers southeast of Tokyo. Small landslides were triggered, and electrical power was interrupted. A tsunami warning was issued for Japan. but only a 50-centimeter wave was observed. The quake was felt with intensity 6 on the Japanese scale at Hachijojima, intensity 4 in Tokyo, and widely over Honshu. From Significant Earthquakes of the World 1972, and Earthquake Information Bulletin, Volume 5, Number 1.

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