The Hector Mine, California, Earthquake of 16 October 1999: Introduction to the Special Issue

Abstract

The Hector Mine, California, earthquake (M_w 7.1) struck the Mojave Desert at 09:46 UTC, 16 October 1999. The earthquake occurred approximately 55 km northwest of the town of Twentynine Palms, California, and about 200 km east-northeast of Los Angeles (Fig. 1). The shock was widely felt throughout southern California, southern Nevada, western Arizona, and northernmost Baja California, Mexico. The Hector Mine earthquake, like the M_w 7.3 Landers earthquake seven years earlier, was associated with fault rupture in the eastern California shear zone (ECSZ) (Fig. 1), which is an approximately 80-km-wide zone of deformation that accommodates about 24% of the relative Pacific–North American plate motion (Sauber et al., 1986, 1994; Dokka and Travis, 1990; Savage et al., 1990, 2001; Gan et al., 2000; Miller et al., 2001). A block diagram highlighting some of the basic aspects of the Hector Mine earthquake is presented in Figure 2. A preliminary summary of the Hector Mine earthquake, its effects, and the response of the geoscience community is presented by Scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey; Southern California Earthquake Center, and California Division of Mines and Geology (USGS, SCEC, and CDMG, 2000).