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Science 18 March 1988:
Vol. 239. no. 4846, pp. 1409 - 1412
DOI: 10.1126/science.239.4846.1409
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Articles

The 1987 Whittier Narrows Earthquake in the Los Angeles Metropolitan Area, California

EGILL HAUKSSON 1, LUCILE M. JONES 2, THOMAS L. DAVIS , L. KATHERINE HUTTON 3, PATRICK WILLIAMS 3, ALLISON L. BENT 3, A. GERALD BRADY 4, PAUL A. REASENBERG 4, ANDREW J. MICHAEL 4, ROBERT F. YERKES 4, EDWIN ETHEREDGE 4, RONALD L. PORCELLA 4, MALCOLM J.S. JOHNSTON 4, GLEN REAGOR 5, CARL W. STOVER 5, CHARLES G. BUFE 5, EDWARD CRANSWICK 5, and ANTHONY K. SHAKAL 6

1 Department of Geological Sciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089-0740.
2 U.S. Geological Survey, 525 South Wilson Avenue, Pasadena, CA 91106.
3 Seismological Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125.
4 U.S. Geological Survey, 345 Middlefield Road, Menlo Park, CA 94025.
5 U.S. Geological Survey, Denver Federal Center, Denver, CO 80225.
6 California Divison of Mines and Geology, 630 Bercut Drive, Sacramento, CA 95814.

The Whittier Narrows earthquake sequence (local magnitude, ML = 5.9), which caused over $358-million damage, indicates that assessments of earthquake hazards in the Los Angeles metropolitan area may be underestimated. The sequence ruptured a previously unidentified thrust fault that may be part of a large system of thrust faults that extends across the entire east-west length of the northern margin of the Los Angeles basin. Peak horizontal accelerations from the main shock, which were measured at ground level and in structures, were as high as 0.6g (where g is the acceleration of gravity at sea level) within 50 kilometers of the epicenter. The distribution of the modified Mercalli intensity VII reflects a broad north-south elongated zone of damage that is approximately centered on the main shock epicenter.

Submitted on November 20, 1987
Accepted on February 4, 1988


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