Don's Home Places California Bay Area Earthquakes Loma Prieta Earthquake |
The highest concentration of fatalities, 42, occurred in the collapse of the Cypress Street Viaduct on the Nimitz Freeway (Interstate 880), where a double-decker portion of the freeway collapsed, crushing the cars on the lower deck.
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The 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake was the largest earthquake to occur on the San Andreas Fault since the great 1906 San Francisco earthquake. It ruptured the southernmost 40 km of the 1906 break. Magnitude: 6.9 MW, 7.1 MS , 6.7 ML The epicenter of the quake was in Forest of Nisene Marks State Park in the Santa Cruz Mountains north of Aptos and approximately 10 miles northeast of Santa Cruz. It occurred at 5:04 Pacific time on October 17, 1989 at the start of the 3rd world sieries game from Candlestick Park. It lasted for 15 seconds. Sixty-three deaths were directly caused by the earthquake; six further deaths were ruled to be caused indirectly.
There was more than $7 billion in property damage.
Information and Links at seismo.berkeley.edu |
Many homes in the San Francisco's Marina District were destroyed or damaged. The area was built on landfill and thus the ground became unstable. (See Liquification) Thirty-five of the buildings were eventually torn down here.
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Isoseismals based on intensity estimates. Source: USGS Return to California |