The Great 1857 Fort Tejon Earthquake
The Last "Big One"
| Date/Time: | January 9, 1857 about 8:20am PST |
| Magnitude | Mw 8.0 approximately |
| Location/Depth: | 35.72N 120.32W |
| Descriptive location: | 45 miles NE of San Luis Obispo |
| Faulting type: | right-lateral strike-slip |
| Faults involved: | San Andreas Fault |
| Length of surface rupture: | about 225 miles (360 km) |
| Maximum surface offset | about 30 ft (9 meters) |
There is not a great deal of information about the Great 1857 Fort Tejon earthquake, but these links provide some information that is available about this event:
Summary (courtesy of SCEC)
Summary and Isoseismal Map (courtesy of NEIC)
The Great 1857 "Fort Tejon" Earthquake: Shake, Rattle, and Roll!
-from the Fort Tejon State Historic Park monthly newsletter
Eyewitness Accounts (from California Geology)
Bibliography of Selected Articles:
Agnew, D. and Sieh, K., 1978, A documentary study of the felt effects of the great California earthquake of 1857: Seismol. Soc. America Bull. 68, pp. 1717-1729.
Sieh, K., 1978, Central California foreshocks of the great 1857 earthquake: Seismol. Soc. America Bull. 68, pp. 1731-1749.
Sieh, K., 1978, Slip along the San Andreas Fault associated with the great 1857 earthquake: Seismol. Soc. America Bull. 68, pp. 1421-1428.
Meisling, K.E. and Sieh, K., 1980, Disturbance of trees by the 1857 Fort Tejon earthquake, California: J. Geophys. Res. 85, pp. 3225-3238.
Grant, L., and K. Sieh, 1993, Stratigraphic evidence for 7 meters of dextral slip on the San Andreas fault during the great 1857 earthquake in the Carrizo Plain: Seismol. Soc. America Bull. 83, 619-635.
