1857 Fort Tejon earthquake

The Fort Tejon earthquake (English Fort Tejon earthquake ) that occurred on January 9, 1857, is considered the strongest earthquake in the U.S. state of California. It is estimated at a magnitude of 7.9. It is thus comparable in magnitude than the San Francisco earthquake of 1906. It occurred along the San Andreas Fault for a length of 362 kilometers between Parkfield and San Bernardino. The two plates that meet along this fault moved during this earthquake of up to nine meters.

California was colonized still very thin in 1857. Unlike, say, the New Madrid earthquake of 1811, there is little tradition of people who experienced the earthquake. For this reason it is also known only among seismologists. Its epicenter was located by current state of research of the Californian town of Parkfield. It was named, however, because the army camp Fort Tejon, which lay at the Tejon Pass, this reported.

Only one death was known as a result of the earthquake. The person died in the collapse of a building constructed of mud brick house on Reed 's Ranch in Gorman, very close to the fault. Most of the buildings in Fort Tejon were severely damaged and injured several people. Some buildings in Los Angeles were destroyed, but reported no major damage. In Ventura, the roof of the Mission and the bell tower was collapsed. By soil liquefaction cracks emerged in marshy ground in Los Angeles and near Oxnard.