35°48′54″N 120°22′26″W / 35.815°N 120.374°W Parkfield earthquake is a name given to various large earthquakes that occurred in the vicinity of the town of Parkfield, California, United States. The San Andreas fault runs through this town, and six successive magnitude 6 earthquakes occurred on the fault at unusually regular intervals, between 12 and 32 years apart (with an average of every 22 years), between 1857 and 1966.[1] The most recent significant earthquake to occur here happened on September 28, 2004.
Earthquakes may occur regularly here because the location is about midway on a fault segment between a locked segment to the south (last major earthquake 1857) and a creeping segment to the north where two tectonic plates are continuously moving without major earthquakes.
- ^ Kanamori, Hiroo (2003). Earthquake Prediction: An Overview. International Association of Seismology and Physics of the Earth’s Interior . ISBN 978-0-12-440658-2.