Earthquake Information

Chronological Earthquake Index

Elsinore Earthquake

TYPE OF FAULTING: probably right-lateral strike-slip
TIME: May 15, 1910 / 7:47 am PST
LOCATION: near 33° 45' N, 117° 27' W just northwest of Lake Elsinore about 15 miles (24 km) south of Riverside
MAGNITUDE: ML6
FAULT INVOLVED: most likely the Elsinore Fault

Preceeded by moderate foreshocks on April 10 and May 12, the May 15, 1910, earthquake was not a particularly strong or damaging quake -- though it did topple chimneys in Corona, Temescal, and Wildomar, and caused some alarm among the citizens of Los Angeles and San Diego, as well as those in towns closer to the epicenter. What is notable about this quake is that best estimates place its epicenter as somewhere along the Elsinore Fault Zone, a fault zone along which no other earthquakes as large as or greater than magnitude 6 have been historically recorded. Estimates of the location and magnitude of this quake are by no means precise, but seem to indicate a quake of roughly magnitude 6, in the vicinity of Temescal Valley, northwest of Lake Elsinore.

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