selected

An earthquake registering 7.3 Mw struck the southern San Joaquin Valley in California, causing 12 deaths and an estimated $60 million in property damage.

1952 Kern County earthquake

7.3 earthquake in the San Joaquin Valley

The 1952 Kern County earthquake occurred on July 21 in the southern San Joaquin Valley and measured 7.3 on the moment magnitude scale. The main shock occurred at 4:52 am Pacific Daylight Time, killed 12 people, injured hundreds more and caused an estimated $60 million in…
Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)

Moment magnitude scale

Measure of earthquake size, in terms of the energy released

The moment magnitude scale is a measure of an earthquake's magnitude based on its seismic moment. Mw was defined in a 1979 paper by Thomas C. Hanks and Hiroo Kanamori. Similar to the local magnitude/Richter scale (ML ) defined by Charles Francis Richter in 1935, it uses a…
Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)

San Joaquin Valley

Area of the Central Valley in California

The San Joaquin Valley is the southern half of California's Central Valley. Famed as a major breadbasket, the San Joaquin Valley is an important source of food, producing a significant part of California's agricultural output.
Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)