Earthquakes - Geotechnical Engineering Investigation - page 896

TABLE 11.1
( Continued )

Location Date Magnitude a Importance

Churchill Co., Nevada Dec. 16, 1954 7.1 Caused much surface faulting in an area

32 96 km, with as much as 6 m vertical and

36 m horizontal displacement

×

Mexico City, Mexico July 28, 1957 7.5 Maximum acceleration only 0.05 to 0.1g in the

city, but caused the collapse of multistory
buildings because of weak soils

Hebgen Lake, Montana Aug. 17, 1959 7.1 Triggered large landslide in mountainous

region which took 14 lives

Agadir, Morocco Feb. 29, 1960 5.8 Small shallow-focus event destroyed the

poorly constructed city and caused 12,000
deaths of 33,000 population. Previous heavy
shock was in 1751

Central Chile May 21, 1960 8.4 Strong, deep-focus quake was felt over large

area, and generated one of the largest
tsunamis on record. Much damage in Hilo,
Hawaii, from a 10-m-high wave and in
Japan from a 4 m high wave

Skopje, Yugoslavia ]uly 26, 1963 6.0 2,000 dead, city 85% destroyed by relatively

small shock in poorly constructed area

Anchorage, Alaska Mar. 27, 1964 8.6 3-min-long acceleration caused much damage

in Anchorage, Valdez, and Seward,
particularly from landsliding

Niigata, Japan June 16, 1964 7.5 City founded on saturated sands suffered

much damage from subsidence and
liquefaction. Apartment houses overturned

Parkfield, California June 27, 1966 5.6 Low magnitude, short duration, but high

acceleration shock (0.5 g) caused little damage.
The San Andreas broke along a 37 km length
and displacement continued for months after
the shock. An accelerograph located virtually
on the fault obtained good strong-motion data

Caracas, Venezuela July 29, 1967 6.3 277 dead, much damage but occurred selectively

Near Chimbote, Peru May 31, 1970 7.8 50,000 dead, including 18,000 from avalanche

triggered by the quake

San Fernando, California Feb. 9, 1971 6.5 Strongest damaging shock in Los Angeles area

in 50 years resulted in 65 deaths from
collapsing buildings, caused major damage
to modern freeway structures. Gave highest
accelerations yet recorded: 0.5 to 0.75 g with
peaks over 1.0 g . (see Section 11.2.4)

Managua, Nicaragua Dec. 23, 1972 6.2 6000 dead; shallow focal depth of 8 km

beneath the city

Guatemala City, Guatemala Feb. 3, 1976 7.9 22,000 dead, great damage over 125 km radius

Tangshan, China July 28, 1976 7.8 655,000 dead (Civil Engineering, November 1977)

Mindanao, Philippines Aug. 18, 1976 7.8 Over 4000 dead in northern provinces

Vrancea, Rumania Mar. 4, 1977 7.2 2000 dead; much damage to Bucharest

El Asnam, Algeria Oct. 10, 1980 7.2 Over 3000 dead

Eboli, Italy Nov. 30, 1980 6.8 Over 10,000 dead

a

Magnitude of 4.0 is usually given as the threshold of damage.

Some recent earthquakes of significance that have occurred in the United States include:
Loma Prieta, California : October 17, 1990, M 8 sec, occurred along the San

Andreas Fault, 47 mi south of San Francisco. Deep focus depth was about 11 mi. Major dam-
age occurred where structures were located over soft ground, and 63 deaths were recorded.

7.0, duration