The July 12, 1906 earthquake
M5.5Near Socorro, New Mexico
A magnitude 5.5 earthquake, centred in Socorro County. The 3rd strongest in New Mexico’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
- 5.5
- as reported (mint)
- Depth
- —
- Not recorded
- Local time
- Thursday, July 12, 1906
- 05:15 MST; 12:15 UTC
- In New Mexico’s record
- 3rd
- strongest of 742 since 1900
USGS ANSS Comprehensive Earthquake Catalog, event snm19060712121500000 (“Near Socorro, New Mexico”). 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
5.8
Largest aftershock, Jul 16, 1906 · its page
0
On the first day
0
In the 7 days before
- 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.
- 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
- Socorro CountyNM · inside
- Torrance CountyNM · 29.8 mi
- Valencia CountyNM · 33.1 mi
- Cibola CountyNM · 37.3 mi
- Lincoln CountyNM · 42.8 mi
Cities, largest first
- Los LunasNM · 48.8 mi
Earthquakes around the epicentre
41 earthquakes of magnitude 3 or more within 50 miles of this epicentre since 1973.
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.