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Information About

Whittier Narrows Earthquake




The earthquake was caused by slip on a Blind Thrust Fault near the northern end of the Whittier Fault , part of the Elsinore Fault Zone , on a previously unknown fault structure. There was no surface rupture. It has been proposed that the event occurred on an extension of the recently recognized Puente Hills Thrust System .1

A magnitude 5.3 Strike-slip Aftershock occurred three days later, on October 4 , causing additional damage.

Three people died as a direct result of the earthquake. One death was of a Southern California Edison worker buried by a landslide in the Muir Peak area of the San Gabriel Mountains while working with a crew installing high tension power lines north of Pasadena, California . Five other deaths are attributed indirectly to the event. About $358 million USD in damage resulted.2

The Whittier Narrows earthquake along with two other events, the 1983 Coalinga Earthquake , M 6.5; and the 1994 Northridge Earthquake , M6.7, brought blind thrusts to the attention of Seismologist s and policy makers.
As a result other significant blind thrusts have been identified in southern California.


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