The November 17, 1902 earthquake

M6.3Near Pine Valley, Utah

A magnitude 6.3 earthquake, centred in Washington County. The 3rd strongest in Utah’s record since 1900, and the strongest within 50 miles in the catalogue, which runs from 1900. 1 aftershock of magnitude 2.5 or more followed within 30 days.

The earthquake

Magnitude
6.3
moment magnitude (Mw)
Depth
—
Not recorded
Local time
Monday, November 17, 1902
12:50 MST; 19:50 UTC
Epicentre
37.40°N, 113.50°W
In Washington County
In Utah’s record
3rd
strongest of 2,224 since 1900
Within 50 miles
7
counties; more on this date

USGS ANSS Comprehensive Earthquake Catalog, event ushis408 (“Near Pine Valley, Utah”). The USGS event page carries the ShakeMap, felt reports and the official summary.

Aftershocks

Earthquakes of magnitude 2.5 or more within 20 miles of the epicentre in the 30 days after.

1

Aftershocks in 30 days

4.8

Largest aftershock, Dec 5, 1902

0

On the first day

0

In the 7 days before

Aftershocks of magnitude 2.5 or more, by day after the earthquake 1: 0 2: 0 3: 0 4: 0 5: 0 6: 0 7: 0 8: 0 9: 0 10: 0 11: 0 12: 0 13: 0 14: 0 15: 0 16: 0 17: 0 18: 1 1 19: 0 20: 0 21: 0 22: 0 23: 0 24: 0 25: 0 26: 0 27: 0 28: 0 29: 0 30: 0 1611162126
  1. The search radius is the surface rupture length expected for an earthquake of this magnitude (Wells and Coppersmith, 1994), at least 20 and at most 600 miles, so a great earthquake's sequence is counted along its whole fault.
  2. Before the modern seismic networks of the 1970s many small aftershocks went unrecorded, so early sequences read short.

Counties and cities within 50 miles

Distance from the epicentre to each county boundary (zero when inside) and to each city centre.

Counties

Cities, largest first

Earthquakes around the epicentre

105 earthquakes of magnitude 3 or more within 50 miles of this epicentre since 1973.

Earthquakes of magnitude 3 or more within 50 miles of the epicentre, by year 1973: 0 1974: 2 1975: 0 1976: 0 1977: 0 1978: 0 1979: 2 1980: 3 1981: 3 1982: 2 1983: 1 1984: 1 1985: 1 1986: 1 1987: 1 1988: 5 1989: 4 1990: 0 1991: 2 1992: 5 1993: 3 1994: 5 1995: 5 1996: 0 1997: 1 1998: 1 1999: 1 2000: 1 2001: 1 2002: 1 2003: 1 2004: 1 2005: 0 2006: 0 2007: 4 2008: 1 2009: 1 2010: 8 8 2011: 1 2012: 2 2013: 5 2014: 5 2015: 1 2016: 3 2017: 5 2018: 0 2019: 3 2020: 2 2021: 3 2022: 2 2023: 1 2024: 4 2025: 0 19731978198319881993199820032008201320182023

No earlier earthquake of magnitude 5 or more within 50 miles in the catalogue since 1900.

USGS ANSS Comprehensive Earthquake Catalog. Local time is the time zone of the county nearest the epicentre. Magnitudes are as the catalogue reports them.