The June 27, 1988 earthquake
M5.3near Lexington Hills, California
A magnitude 5.3 earthquake 7.9 miles deep, centred in Santa Clara County. The 269th strongest in California’s record since 1900, and the strongest within 50 miles since a magnitude 5.3 on June 12, 1988. 1 aftershock of magnitude 2.5 or more followed within 30 days.
The earthquake
- Magnitude
- 5.3
- local magnitude (ml)
- Depth
- 7.9 mi
- 12.6 km below the surface
- Local time
- Monday, June 27, 1988
- 11:43 PDT; 18:43 UTC
- In California’s record
- 269th
- strongest of 97,065 since 1900
USGS ANSS Comprehensive Earthquake Catalog, event nc10139668 (“8 km ESE of Lexington Hills, California”). 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
2.9
Largest aftershock, Jun 27, 1988
1
On the first day
2
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.
Counties and cities within 50 miles
Distance from the epicentre to each county boundary (zero when inside) and to each city centre.
Counties
- Santa Clara CountyCA · inside
- Santa Cruz CountyCA · 7.7 mi
- San Mateo CountyCA · 15.4 mi
- Monterey CountyCA · 17.5 mi
- San Benito CountyCA · 20.9 mi
- Alameda CountyCA · 22.6 mi
- Stanislaus CountyCA · 25.7 mi
- San Joaquin CountyCA · 33.7 mi
- Merced CountyCA · 35.9 mi
- Contra Costa CountyCA · 40.9 mi
- San Francisco CountyCA · 48.2 mi
Cities, largest first
- San JoseCA · 12.4 mi
- OaklandCA · 47.9 mi
- FremontCA · 25.4 mi
- SalinasCA · 33.5 mi
- HaywardCA · 36.3 mi
- SunnyvaleCA · 19.2 mi
- Santa ClaraCA · 16.8 mi
- San MateoCA · 37.6 mi
- TracyCA · 48.0 mi
- San RamonCA · 44.1 mi
- Mountain ViewCA · 21.3 mi
- San LeandroCA · 42.4 mi
Earthquakes around the epicentre
2,295 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
- July 1, 1911M6.5
- October 22, 1926M6.3
- October 22, 1926M6.3
- August 2, 1903M6.2
- April 24, 1984M6.2
- June 11, 1903M6.1
- April 8, 1961M5.9
- September 4, 1955M5.8
- March 10, 1910M5.8
- August 6, 1916M5.8
USGS ANSS Comprehensive Earthquake Catalog. Local time is the time zone of the county nearest the epicentre. Magnitudes are as the catalogue reports them.