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The 1999 Hector Mine earthquake was a magnitude
7.1 earthquake that
occurred on October 16, 1999 at 2:46:44 PDT 47
Miles ESE of Barstow, California. The earthquake occurred in a
remote part of the Mojave Desert, inside the Twentynine
Palms Marine Corps Base. Its name comes from a nearby quarry
named Hector Mine, which is located 22 kilometres (14 mi)
northwest of the epicenter.
The earthquake was felt throughout Southern
California, as well as in Las Vegas, Nevada. Many people were
awakened in Las Vegas, with many reporting dizziness or trouble
walking. Reports were filed as far north as Carson City, Nevada,
where one woman reported waking up, hearing chimes in her house
ringing.
Nearly no damage was reported in the immediate area of the
earthquake due to the remote location of the epicenter in the
Mojave Desert, with no settlements for 14 miles, however Amtrak's westbound Southwest Chief
(train #3) was an unusual victim of the earthquake. The train was
traveling very near the epicenter when the quake struck. The
combined force of the quake and train caused several rails to come
loose and the train derailed. Only minor injuries were reported,
and the trainset suffered repairable damage.
It is thought that the earthquake may have been triggered by the
1992 Landers earthquake some 7
years previous, since the recurrence interval of large earthquakes
in the Eastern
California Shear Zone is considered to be in the order of
thousands of years.[3][4] The
sequence of 12 foreshocks of up to magnitude 3.8 that
began 20 hours before the Hector Mine event occurred in the same
location as a cluster of off-fault aftershocks of the Landers
quake.[5]
See also
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Very Large
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Large
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