Abstract
ON the morning of June 23, an earthquake of considerable intensity was felt along the whole of the coast of Southern California. It was particularly severe at Hollister and Salina, where it was said to be the worst since 1906, though no material damage was done. California is particularly prone to local earthquakes and tremors, and a glance at the geomorphic map prepared by the Earthquake Investigation Commission shows that considerable movement has taken place from time to time along the groat fault systems which chiefly run parallel with the coast line. In this particular instance it is difficult to state exactly where the epicentre may have been, but it is possible that slipping may have taken place along the San Andreas Fault which runs practically along the whole length of the affected area and lies approximately midway between Hollister and Salina. A second shock was felt at Pasadena and San Diego in the early afternoon of the same day. This probably had its epicentre in the mountainous region of Nevada; it was sufficiently intense to have caused considerable damage had it occurred in a densely populated region. California has several seismological observatories, so that thorough investigations will no doubt be made of these shocks. A descriptive catalogue of earthquakes of the Pacific coast of the United States from 1769 to 1928 was published in January 1930 by the Seismological Society of America. The recorded shocks for California occupy 231 pages whilst those for the remainder of the coast occupy 44 pages.
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Earthquakes in California. Nature 144, 66–67 (1939). https://doi.org/10.1038/144066b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/144066b0