| Reminder from: | californiadisasters Yahoo Group | |
| Title: | 1983 Coalinga Quake | |
| Date: | Friday May 2, 2014 | |
| Time: | 4:30 pm - 4:30 pm (GMT-08.00) Pacific Time (US & Canada) | |
| Location: | Central California in Southwestern Fresno County | |
| Notes: | At 4:42 p.m. on May 2, 1983, a strong earthquake jolted Central California with an epicenter a short distance northeast of Coalinga, CA, in Southwest Fresno County. It was caused by a rupture of a blind thrust fault for which oil well-covered Anticline Ridge northeast of Coalinga is a surface manifestation and it was this fold that was jacked up half a meter by the quake. This earthquake was felt from the Pacific Coast to Western Nevada and south from the LA-area to Susanville in the north. Damage was mostly light to moderate, however, downtown Coalinga was devastated. Thankfully, most businesses had closed by the time the quake hit. Consequently, not nearly so many people were in the quake-ravaged commercial district and nobody was killed with fewer than 50 notable injuries. If you drive through Coalinga today you will find no brick chimneys as most/all of them came down or were damaged beyond repair in the earthquake. On May, 8, there was a M5.3 aftershock followed a month later on June 11, by M5.2 aftershock this one about a dozen miles northwest of Coalinga that caused surface faulting along the previously-unknown Numez Fault. On July 21, 1983, there was strong M6.0 aftershock followed by another M5.3 event on the 25th. Interestingly, the year before the Coalinga Quake there was a M5.5 event in the New Idria area northwest of Coalinga and a couple of years after the Coalinga Quake there was a M6.1 event southeast of Coalinga under the North Dome of the Kettleman Hills Oil Fields. There is some speculation that all of these events contributed to the apparent delay of the long forecasted 2004 Parkfield Quake which occurred 38 years after the previous event which is longer than the average interval of such events since 1857. Then again the previous interval was 34 years so maybe so maybe not. Sources: Numerous, but primarily Seismicity of the United States, 1568-1989 (Revised) | |
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