Talk:1992 Landers earthquake

Notable California Earthquakes

Why is there not any mention of the Petrolia series of Earthquakes which also occurred in 1992. This occurred on April 25, 1992 and was a magnitude 7.1. This would make Landers the largest California earthquake to happen in a few months. Not 40 years. The Petrolia earthquake was in fact the largest to occur since the 1952 Kern County event. Rtwice93555 (talk) 07:35, 1 September 2008 (UTC)

Aftershocks

The aftershocks section repeatedly emphasized that the Big Bear earthquake was completely unrelated to the Landers earthquake. However the reference cited said that they were related. I corrected the section to agree with the reference. Rsduhamel (talk) 08:19, 1 January 2009 (UTC)

The quake was felt across western USA

Reports of the 1992 Landers earthquake came from 1,000 miles away in distant places like Albuquerque and Seattle, where residents find window blinds rattle in a soft motion and swimming pools mysteriously splash into the sidewalk. I believe the richter scale for this one wasn't completely accurate, whether it was M7.3 or 7.6, the quake's magnitude was strong enough to be felt or detected in 12 western US states, 15 Mexican states & 3 Canadian provinces. + 71.102.7.77 (talk) 14:15, 27 February 2010 (UTC)

Displacements

I think an article about a specific significant earthquake should mention displacements associated with the quake and the aftershocks. What land was moved, in what directions, and by how much? SlowJog (talk) 17:28, 14 March 2011 (UTC)

When was it downgraded to 7.3?

When the quake was first reported in the news, it was described as 7.7 or 7.8. The rating was still changing months later. According to this news report by the LA Times in 1993, the Landers quake was the strongest for 1992 being rated at the time at 7.6 based on "complete reports from 39 seismological stations throughout the world." [1] The article seems to indicate the quake is now rated a 7.3. Does anyone know the basis for the downgrade? It seems strange that there is a .3 downgrade after months of analysis of "complete reports from 39 seismological stations throughout the world. RonCram(talk) 17:13, 8 August 2012‎ (UTC)

I was in San Diego when it happened, and remember it was reported as a 7.4 at some point. See also this article https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1992-06-29-mn-890-story.html. As such, I too am curious when and why it got downgraded to 7.3. 131.89.195.71 (talk) 15:52, 4 October 2023 (UTC)

Earthquake magnitudes are regularly recalculated. The 7.3 Mw is attributed to the California Integrated Seismic Network: Southern California Seismic Network (Caltech, USGS Pasadena, and Partners). Soon after the event there were a range of magnitudes quoted, but looking at the scientific papers that were published within the first few years, these mostly showed 7.3 Mw and, more recently than that, only the 7.3 value. The initial high values were probably not on the moment magnitude scale, either surface wave magnitude M_s  or Richter magnitude M_L , which are less accurate for larger earthquakes. Mikenorton (talk) 19:42, 4 October 2023 (UTC)

Assessment comment

The comment(s) below were originally left at Talk:1992 Landers earthquake/Comments, and are posted here for posterity. Following several discussions in past years, these subpages are now deprecated. The comments may be irrelevant or outdated; if so, please feel free to remove this section.

Comment(s)

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I am a resident of Yucca Valley, and was a resident during this quake. I lived 1.5 miles from the epicenter. I believe that the quake was scaled down to a 7.6, not a 7.3. And, the damage was more extensive. People were without water for weeks. The Kmart in town was completely leveled. In front of where the building had stood were kmart workers handing out water to residents. Living out here we were always trained to be earthquake prepared - having water stored away, etc, but we ran out. We went to the Kmart lot for water, and also had to go to the Red Cross for water as what we had stored ran out due to the extensive time part of the town was without water. Also, the water damage to the homes was not largely due to swimming pools. Not many people have pools in Yucca Valley. The water damage was due to pipes that broke in homes during the quake. When water was restored later on, the homes received water damage. The little boy that died was hit in the head by a falling brick from the chimney. He was not crushed. One of my friend's was babysitting him at that time as his parents went out of town. They awoke to the quake, they ducked for cover under a table, but as the chimeny fell inside the home, a falling brick struck the boy in the head killing him. The heart attach victims had them after the fact, during the aftershocks. You really need to recheck your story. And maybe take some of the focus off of LA. Focus on the are it happened in. LA is 2 hours away from here - so of course they didn't receive much damage.

Last edited at 15:24, 6 December 2008 (UTC). Substituted at 05:52, 29 April 2016 (UTC)

Tone of page is conversational, shouldn't this read less like prose and more like an encyclopedia entry?

It reads as rather flowery, a bit like a bad newspaper article. Can someone take a look at this?

Generally all I do to wiki articles is vandalize them, but this is actually poorly written and not up to wiki standards.

97.101.21.48 (talk) 02:31, 5 October 2016 (UTC)Annoying person who wanted to point out that this is terrible

Largest in 40 years

The claim that this is the "largest in 40 years" seem to consider the 1952 Kern County earthquake the previous largest one (also magnitude 7.3). However, the 1959 Hebgen Lake earthquake has a higher magnitude and occurred later. DHN (talk) 23:06, 26 February 2017 (UTC)

Yeah, that's been bothering me for some time. Thanks for mentioning it. I went ahead and removed it. Dawnseeker2000 23:53, 26 February 2017 (UTC)