‘71 Valley Quake a Brush With Catastrophe : Related Earthquakes
Earthquake scientists acknowledge they do not completely understand how, but they believe that in some way the 1971 Sylmar-San Fernando earthquake triggered the Northridge earthquake 23 years later. The aftershock zones of the two quakes overlap. Unlike Northridge, the San Fernando quake had a surface rupture, and unlike Northridge it was centered in the mountains rather than beneath the Valley floor.
SAN FERNANDO (1971)
Magnitude: 6.7
Deaths: 64
Injuries: 2,543
Damage: $553 million
Damaged Buildings: 23,336
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NORTHRIDGE (1994)
Magnitude: 6.7
Deaths: 72
Injuries: 11,846
Damage: $25 billion
Damaged Buildings: 114,039
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