Location
St. Louis, Missouri
Date
04 Jun 1993, 8:00 am - 10:00 am
Abstract
The Petrolia, California earthquake (MS 6.9, ML 6.4) occurred on April 25, 1992 and was followed by numerous aftershocks including two earthquakes over magnitude 6 that occurred on April 26, 1992. The earthquakes caused structural damage in Ferndale, Petrolia, Honeydew, Rio Dell, Fortuna, and Scotia. The earthquake also produced ground failures of liquefaction, lateral spreads, and landslides in the epicentral region. Liquefaction did not appear to be widespread, and occurred in locations where it would most likely be expected to occur (low lying areas with very recent alluvial deposits and high ground water). Scattered landslides were triggered by the earthquake sequence throughout the epicentral region of the main shock and within a broad region around it. For an event of this size, the damage was limited by the sparse population, limited development, and depth of the main shock. Other than the liquefaction of a very silty sand, none of the geotechnical consequences were unexpected.
Department(s)
Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering
Meeting Name
3rd Conference of the International Conference on Case Histories in Geotechnical Engineering
Publisher
University of Missouri--Rolla
Document Version
Final Version
Rights
© 1993 University of Missouri--Rolla, All rights reserved.
Creative Commons Licensing
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Document Type
Article - Conference proceedings
File Type
text
Language
English
Recommended Citation
Green, Robert K. and Sawyer, Thomas L., "Geotechnical Aspects of the Petrolia Earthquake" (1993). International Conference on Case Histories in Geotechnical Engineering. 4.
https://scholarsmine.mst.edu/icchge/3icchge/3icchge-session14/4
Geotechnical Aspects of the Petrolia Earthquake
St. Louis, Missouri
The Petrolia, California earthquake (MS 6.9, ML 6.4) occurred on April 25, 1992 and was followed by numerous aftershocks including two earthquakes over magnitude 6 that occurred on April 26, 1992. The earthquakes caused structural damage in Ferndale, Petrolia, Honeydew, Rio Dell, Fortuna, and Scotia. The earthquake also produced ground failures of liquefaction, lateral spreads, and landslides in the epicentral region. Liquefaction did not appear to be widespread, and occurred in locations where it would most likely be expected to occur (low lying areas with very recent alluvial deposits and high ground water). Scattered landslides were triggered by the earthquake sequence throughout the epicentral region of the main shock and within a broad region around it. For an event of this size, the damage was limited by the sparse population, limited development, and depth of the main shock. Other than the liquefaction of a very silty sand, none of the geotechnical consequences were unexpected.
