The 2010 Eureka earthquake occurred on January 9 at 4:27:38 pm PST offshore of

Humboldt County, California Humboldt County () is a county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 136,463. The county seat is Eureka. Humboldt County comprises the Eureka–Arcata–Fortuna, California Micropolitan Statistica ...

, United States. The magnitude was measured 6.5 on the scale, and its epicenter was located offshore in the Pacific Ocean west of the nearest major city,

Eureka Eureka (often abbreviated as E!, or Σ!) is an intergovernmental organisation for research and development funding and coordination. Eureka is an open platform for international cooperation in innovation. Organisations and companies applying th ...

. Additionally, there was a separate earthquake further offshore of Eureka on February 4 with a slightly lower magnitude of 5.9. It was also the most significant earthquake in the Eureka area in terms of magnitude since the

1992 Cape Mendocino earthquakes The 1992 Cape Mendocino earthquakes (or 1992 Petrolia earthquakes) occurred along the Lost Coast of Northern California on April 25 and 26. The three largest events were the M7.2 Fault (geology)#Dip-slip faults, thrust mainshock that struck near ...

. It was felt from Santa Cruz County, California in the south, to Eugene, Oregon in the north and to the east as far as Reno, Nevada.

Tectonic setting

Near

Cape Mendocino Cape Mendocino (Spanish: ''Cabo Mendocino'', meaning "Cape of Mendoza"), which is located approximately north of San Francisco, is located on the Lost Coast entirely within Humboldt County, California, United States. At 124° 24' 34" W longitude ...

, the

Mendocino Triple Junction The Mendocino Triple Junction (MTJ) is the point where the Gorda plate, the North American plate, and the Pacific plate meet, in the Pacific Ocean near Cape Mendocino in northern California. This triple junction is the location of a change in the ...

is an area of active seismicity where three tectonic plates come together. The

Mendocino Fracture Zone The Mendocino Fracture Zone is a fracture zone and transform boundary over 4000 km (2500 miles) long, starting off the coast of Cape Mendocino in far northern California. It runs westward from a triple junction with the San Andreas Fault a ...

(also known as the Mendocino Fault east of the

Gorda Ridge The Gorda Ridge (41°36'19.6"N 127°22'03.1"W), aka ''Gorda Ridges'' tectonic spreading center, is located roughly off the northern coast of California and southern Oregon. Running NE – SW it is roughly in length.Carey, Stein, & Rona. (1990). ...

) is a

transform fault A transform fault or transform boundary, is a fault along a plate boundary where the motion is predominantly horizontal. It ends abruptly where it connects to another plate boundary, either another transform, a spreading ridge, or a subductio ...

that separates the

Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

and

Gorda Plate The Gorda Plate, located beneath the Pacific Ocean off the coast of northern California, is one of the northern remnants of the Farallon Plate. It is sometimes referred to (by, for example, publications from the USGS Earthquake Hazards Program) as ...

s. To the south, the relative motion between the Pacific Plate and

North American Plate The North American Plate is a tectonic plate covering most of North America, Cuba, the Bahamas, extreme northeastern Asia, and parts of Iceland and the Azores. With an area of , it is the Earth's second largest tectonic plate, behind the Pacific ...

is accommodated by the

San Andreas Fault The San Andreas Fault is a continental transform fault that extends roughly through California. It forms the tectonics, tectonic boundary between the Pacific Plate and the North American Plate, and its motion is Fault (geology)#Strike-slip fau ...

, and to the north, the Gorda Plate is converging with the North American Plate at the

Cascadia Subduction Zone The Cascadia subduction zone is a convergent plate boundary that stretches from northern Vancouver Island in Canada to Northern California in the United States. It is a very long, sloping subduction zone where the Explorer, Juan de Fuca, and ...

Impact

Structural damage was inflicted among older

Victorian house In Great Britain and former British colonies, a Victorian house generally means any house built during the reign of Queen Victoria. During the Industrial Revolution, successive housing booms resulted in the building of many millions of Victorian ...

s, power was severed for several hours, and windows were shattered. In addition, 28,000 customers of

Pacific Gas and Electric Co. The Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) is an American investor-owned utility (IOU). The company is headquartered in the Pacific Gas & Electric Building, in San Francisco, California. PG&E provides natural gas and electricity to 5.2 millio ...

, mostly those from Humboldt County, were left without electricity and phone services as a result. In Eureka, the Old Town Bar and Grill building was previously believed to be severely damaged beyond repair and ordered demolished by the city, until a developer purchased and renovated it in 2011. The town's high school, known as Eureka High School, and the Bayshore Mall were damaged and briefly closed, though both were later reopened with close to full services. An auditorium at Eureka High remained closed over concerns regarding its structural safety as of June 15, 2010. A total of 463 buildings sustained damage as a result of the earthquake, leaving $21.8–43 million in losses.

References

External links

Eureka earthquake, January 9, 2010
–

KXTV KXTV (channel 10) is a television station in Sacramento, California, United States, affiliated with ABC. Owned by Tegna Inc., the station maintains studios on Broadway, just south of US 50 at the south edge of downtown Sacramento, and its trans ...

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Eureka Earthquake, 2010 2010 earthquakes 2010 natural disasters in the United States

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

History of Humboldt County, California January 2010 events in the United States

Tectonic setting

Impact

See also

References

External links