The March 20, 1920 earthquake
M5.5near Rancho Tehama Reserve, California
A magnitude 5.5 earthquake 9.3 miles deep, centred in Tehama County. The 178th strongest in California’s record since 1900, and the strongest within 50 miles in the catalogue, which runs from 1900.
The earthquake
- Magnitude
- 5.5
- moment magnitude (mw)
- Depth
- 9.3 mi
- 15.0 km below the surface
- Local time
- Saturday, March 20, 1920
- 09:48 PST; 17:48 UTC
- In California’s record
- 178th
- strongest of 97,065 since 1900
USGS ANSS Comprehensive Earthquake Catalog, event iscgem912459 (“33 km NW of Rancho Tehama Reserve, California”). The USGS event page carries the ShakeMap, felt reports and the official summary.
Counties and cities within 50 miles
Distance from the epicentre to each county boundary (zero when inside) and to each city centre.
Counties
- Tehama CountyCA · inside
- Shasta CountyCA · 9.5 mi
- Trinity CountyCA · 13.6 mi
- Mendocino CountyCA · 19.3 mi
- Glenn CountyCA · 30.2 mi
- Butte CountyCA · 41.5 mi
- Lake CountyCA · 42.7 mi
- Humboldt CountyCA · 46.1 mi
Cities, largest first
- ReddingCA · 31.4 mi
- Red BluffCA · 24.9 mi
- AndersonCA · 28.0 mi
- Shasta LakeCA · 37.3 mi
Earthquakes around the epicentre
280 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.