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There was one major earthquake during this reporting period-a magnitude 7.1 shock off the coast of Northern California on August 17. Earthquake-related deaths were reported from Indonesia, Romania, Peru, and Iraq.
There were two major earthquakes (7.0≤M <8.0) during this reporting period. A magnitude 7.5 earthquake occurred in Kyrgyzstan on August 19 and a magnitude 7.0 quake struck the Ascension Island region on August 28. In southern California, aftershocks of the magnitude 7.6 earthquake on June 28, 1992, continued. One of these aftershocks caused damage and injuries, and at least one other aftershock caused additional damage. Earthquake-related fatalities were reportred in Kyrgzstan and Pakistan.
Two major earthquakes (7.0-7.9) occurred during this reporting period: a magnitude 7.6 in Costa Rica on April 22 and a magntidue 7.0 in the USSR on April 29. Destructive earthquakes hit northern Peru on April 4 and 5. There were no destructive earthquakes in the United States during this period.
One major earthquake occurred during this reporting period. This was a magntidue 7.1 in Indonesia (Minahassa Peninsula) on June 20. Earthquake-related deaths were reported in the Western Caucasus (Georgia, USSR) on May 3 and June 15. One earthquake-related death was also reported El Salvador on June 21. In the United States, a magnitude 5.8 earthquake in southern California on June 28 killed two people and caused considerable damage. Strong earthquakes hit Alaska on May 1 and May 30; the May 1 earthquake caused some minor damage.
There were three major earthquakes (7.0-7.9) during the last two months of the year: a magntidue 7.0 on November 19 in Columbia, a magnitude 7.4 in the Kuril Islands on December 22, and a magnitude 7.1 in the South Sandwich Islands on December 27. Earthquake-related deaths were reported in Colombia, Yemen, and Iran. there were no significant earthquakes in the United States during this reporting period.
There were two major earthquakes (7.0-7.9) during this reporting period. the first was in the Solomon Islands on October 14 and the second was in India on October 19. Earthquake-related deaths were reported in Guatemala and India. Htere were no significant earthquakes in the United States during the period covered in this report.
This reporting period was very active in terms of earthquake occurrence; there were six major earthquakes (7.0≤M<8.0) during the second half of october. Earthquake-related deaths were reported in Iran, Nicaragua, Egypt, Colombia, Morocco, Zaire, and the Republic of Georgia. In the United States, a damaging earthquake occurred in Utah on Septmber 2 and a magnitude 6.8 struck Alaska's Aleutian Islands on September 29.
A major earthquake (7.0≤M<8.0) occurred on June 8 during this reporting period. This magnitude 7.3 earthquake was centered off the east coast of Kamchatka. there were no earthquake-related deaths during the months of May and June. Seismicity in the United States included two strong earthquakes in Alaska. The first, a magntidue 6.8 earthquake on May 13, was centered on the Alaska Peninsula. The second, a magntidue 6.5 earthquake on May 15, struck the Andreanof Islands in the Aleutian chain. The California-Nevada border region experienced a magntidue 6.0 earthquake on MAy 17.
There were two major earthquakes (7.0≤M<8.0) during the last two months of the year, a magntidue 7.5 earthquake on December 12 in the Flores region, Indonesia, and a magnitude 7.0 earthquake on December 20 in the Banda Sea. Earthquakes caused fatalities in China and Indonesia. The greatest number of deaths (2,500) for the year occurred in Indonesia. In Switzerland, six people were killed by an accidental explosion recoreded by seismographs. In teh United States, a magnitude 5.3 earthquake caused slight damage at Big Bear in southern California.
Two major earthquakes (7.0≤M<8.0) occurred during the last two months of 1993. A magnitude 7.0 earthquake occurred off the coast of Kamchatka in eastern Russia on November 13, and a magntidue 7.0 earthquake shook the Vanuatu Islands in the southwest Pacific Ocean on December 29. The only earthquake-related fatality during the last two months of the year occurred in Nicaragua, where on death was reproted. No significant earthquakes were reported in the United States during this reporting period.
Three major earthquakes (7.0≤M<8.0) occurred during this reporting period. the first, a magnitude 7.2 on September 10, struck near the coast of Chiapas, Mexico. the seocond and third, both with magnitudes of 7.0, shook eastern New Guiena on October 2 and October 25. Earthquake-related deaths were reported in India, Japan, Guatemala, Papua New Guinea, and in the United States. The fatalities in the United States were caused by two earthquakes in southern Oregon on September 21. These earthquakes, both with magnitude 6.0 and separated in time by about 2 hrs, led to the deaths of two people. One of these deaths was apparently due to a heart attack induced by the earthquake.
There were no major earthquakes during the first 2 months of the year and there were no earthquake-related deaths reported during this same time period. In the United States a moderate earthquake on February 28 in southern California caused some minor injuries and considerable damage.
The April 25-26, 1992, earthquakes caused significant changes in the landscape of the Cape Mendocino region. Although fault rupture did not break through to the surface, effects on the landscape included landslides, ground cracking due to strong shaking, liquefaction features (described later in this article), and uplift along the coast. The location map on the next page shows the distribution of some of these features.
Natural disasters affect countires large and small, rich or poor, whatever their political persuasion. The toll exacted by natural calamities each year drains the human and economic resources of every nation and stands as one of the formidable barriers to national, regional, and world development. Over the last 20 years, natural disasters have killed nearly 3 million people and disrupted the lives of over 800 million others. In 2 years there were more than 50 serious natural disasters, including landslides in Italy, France, and Colombia; a typhoon in Korea; wildfires in China and the United State; a windstorm in England; grasshopper plagues in Africa's horns and the Sahel; tornadoes in Canada; devastating earthquakes in Soviet Armenia and Tadzhikistan; infestations in Africa; landslides in Brazil; and tornadoes in the United States.
Earthquakes & Volcanoes has achieved much in its 20-year history. It serves as a link with policy makers and the public. it offers a variety of information attractive to professionals: historical, culutral, and curent events, and news items not found or missed elsewhere. And the journal can anticipate an even mroe important role in the future because, with increasing concentrations of population as well as building costs, people and their constructs have become mroe vulnerable to hazards.
Tokyo, Japan's capital, has been enjoying a seismically quiet period following the 1923 Kanto earthquake of magnitude 7.9 that killed more than 140,000 people. Such a quiet period seems likely to be a repetition of the 80-year quiescence after the great 1703 Genroku earthquake of magntidue 8.2 that occurred in an epicentral area adjacent to that of the 1923 Kanto earthquake. In 1784, seismic activity immediately under the capital area revived with occasional occurrence of magnitude 6 to 7 shocks. Earthquakes of this class tended to occur more frequently as time went on and they eventually culminated in the 1923 Kanto earthquake. As more than 60 years have passed since the Kanto earthquake, we may well expect another revival of activity immediately under the capital area.
Past investigations by myself and others on the role of the mass media in disasters indicate that news people typically find themselves in situations of uncertainty, ambiguity, and conflicting information; the communication and transportation services that these people use in covering a story become inoperative. However, the media are expected to make sense of the disaster situation almost immediately. the difficulties of doing so were reflected by the ABC Goodyear Blimp footage of the collapsed Nimitz Freeway in Oakland, California, broadcast nationally on the evening of October 17, 1989. The televised picture showed the disastrous results of the Loma Prieta earthquake, but for an hour or more the announcer could not correctly identify what was being shown. He did not seem to realize that the upper deck of the freeway had collapsed on the lower deck, crushing vechiles and people.
Trenching studies of the San Andreas fault have been of great value to geologists in California for determining not only the prehistoric occurrences of earthquakes on the fault bu also the age of these movements. In the New Madrid seismic zone, U.S Geological Survey scientists have been trenching across suspected faults to try to assess earthquake frequency in the Central U.S. The following photographs document these trenching studies.