Earthquake Summary Poster

This earthquake likely occurred on the Oceanic fault zone in the Santa Lucia mountains of coastal Central California, north of the town of Cambria. The location of the earthquake is in a region witha history of frequent small and moderate shocks. A study of the elastic- waves radiated from the source indicates that the San Simeon earthquake was caused by reverse faulting. Rupture propagated to the southeast from the hypocenter over a distance of approximately 20 km. Previous shocks from the region have also been caused by reverse faulting or by oblique- reverse faulting. The largest historical earthquake in the vicinity of the earthquake was the magnitude 6.2 Bryson earthquake of November 1952.

The broad scale tectonics of coastal central California are dominated by the northwestward motion of the Pacific plate with respect to the North American plate. Most of the relative plate motion is accommodated by slip on major strike- slip faults, such as the San Andreas fault, situated about 60 km northeast of the epicenter of this earthquake, and the San Simeon- Hosgri fault system, about 10 km southwest of the epicenter. The reverse faulting that generated the recent earthquake was caused by the release of compressive stress that was generated by the motion of crustal blocks within the overall strike- slip plate- boundary zone.