The January 31, 1954 earthquake
M5.7near San Luis Rio Colorado, Son., MX, Arizona
A magnitude 5.7 earthquake 3.7 miles deep, 34.0 miles off Yuma County. The 15th strongest in Arizona’s record since 1900, and the strongest within 50 miles since a magnitude 6.4 on December 31, 1934. 1 aftershock of magnitude 2.5 or more followed within 30 days.
The earthquake
- Magnitude
- 5.7
- local magnitude (ml)
- Depth
- 3.7 mi
- 6.0 km below the surface
- Local time
- Sunday, January 31, 1954
- 21:31 MST; 04:31 UTC on Feb 1, 1954
- In Arizona’s record
- 15th
- strongest of 6,972 since 1900
USGS ANSS Comprehensive Earthquake Catalog, event ci3301219 (“50km SE of San Luis Rio Colorado, Son., MX”). 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
4.0
Largest aftershock, Feb 1, 1954
1
On the first day
1
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
- Yuma CountyAZ · 34.0 mi
- Imperial CountyCA · 39.9 mi
Earthquakes around the epicentre
742 earthquakes of magnitude 3 or more within 50 miles of this epicentre since 1973.
Earlier earthquakes of magnitude 5 or more within 50 miles, strongest first
USGS ANSS Comprehensive Earthquake Catalog. Local time is the time zone of the county nearest the epicentre. Magnitudes are as the catalogue reports them.