76 Significant Quakes in World in ’87 : Death Toll of 1,100 Well Below Long-Term Average of 10,000

Significant earthquakes shook parts of the world 76 times last year, the largest number of serious tremors in more than a decade, the U.S. Geological Survey reported Thursday.

That number included the Oct. 1 Whittier Narrows earthquake in Southern California and nine other serious quakes in the United States, the most since 1980. The U.S. temblors included the world’s strongest of the year, a quake measured at 7.6 on the Richter scale that shook the Gulf of Alaska on Nov. 30.

The worldwide total was the largest number of strong earthquakes since 1976, when there were 79 temblors measuring 6.5 or more on the Richter scale or causing casualties or considerable damage, the USGS reported.

While the 1987 total of significant tremors was 18 more than the year before, the death toll of 1,100 was about the same as in 1986 and well below the long-term average of 10,000 quake deaths annually, the report added.

About 1,000 of the 1987 quake fatalities occurred March 6 when a temblor estimated at 6.9 on the Richter scale struck along the Colombia-Ecuador border. That disaster caused considerable damage and left 20,000 people homeless, said Waverly Person, head of the USGS National Earthquake Information Service in Golden, Colo.

The island of Timor in the western Pacific was the scene of 37 deaths in a quake with a 6.5 magnitude on Nov. 6, which reportedly destroyed 3,800 buildings.

The USGS counted all nine of the U.S. fatalities, which included five heart attacks, as stemming from the Oct. 1 quake, put at 5.9 magnitude, and an Oct. 4 aftershock of 5.3 magnitude.

In addition, on Nov. 24 a quake near Westmoreland in Southern California was blamed for an auto accident across the border in Mexicali, Mexico, which claimed two lives.

That quake, measured at 6.6 on the Richter scale, caused 94 injuries and $2.6 million in damage, the USGS said. Last June 10 a tremor measured at 4.9 struck near Lawrenceville, Ill., injuring one person and shaking parts of 21 states and Canada.

The remaining five significant U.S. quakes were all located in the Gulf of Alaska or along the coast of that state, including events on Jan. 5, Feb. 27, May 6, Nov. 17 and Nov. 30. Only minor damage was reported from those quakes.

The Nov. 30 quake measured 7.6 on the Richter scale and was the world’s strongest since a 7.8 quake in Taiwan in 1986.