2005/09/21 M4.7 Mettler

Anthony Guarino, Egill Hauksson, Kate Hutton, California Institute of Technology

Lucy Jones, Sue Hough, Doug Given, USGS Pasadena

The MW4.7 Mettler Earthquake, which occurred at 1:24:48PM, was preceded by a ML 3.4 foreshock which occurred 44 seconds earlier, at 1:23:04 PM. The MW4.7 mainshock was followed by several smaller aftershocks, all of which are listed below, current as of 2:34PM, 9/22/05.

Event ID Mag Date Time Lat Lon Depth Location
14186608 3.4 2005/09/22 13:24:04 35 2.0 N 119 0.6 W 11.2 7 km (4 mi) WNW of Wheeler Ridge, CA
14186612 4.7 2005/09/22 13:24:48 35 2.3 N 119 0.9 W 10.9 8 km (5 mi) WNW of Wheeler Ridge, CA
14186620 1.8 2005/09/22 13:29:03 35 2.2 N 119 2.2 W 12.4 9 km (6 mi) WNW of Wheeler Ridge, CA
14186624 3.4 2005/09/22 13:29:47 35 2.3 N 119 1.1 W 11.2 8 km (5 mi) WNW of Wheeler Ridge, CA
14186628 3.7 2005/09/22 13:30:52 35 3.1 N 118 58.8 W 3.6 6 km (4 mi) NNW of Wheeler Ridge, CA
14186632 2.4 2005/09/22 13:34:05 35 3.6 N 119 0.2 W 13.8 8 km (5 mi) NW of Wheeler Ridge, CA
14186636 1.9 2005/09/22 13:36:03 35 2.6 N 119 1.4 W 13.6 8 km (5 mi) WNW of Wheeler Ridge, CA
14186640 3.2 2005/09/22 13:37:49 35 2.7 N 118 58.5 W 9.1 5 km (3 mi) NW of Wheeler Ridge, CA
14186644 3.0 2005/09/22 13:38:21 35 2.6 N 118 57.0 W 5.1 4 km (3 mi) N of Wheeler Ridge, CA
14186660 2.4 2005/09/22 13:45:47 35 1.5 N 118 59.7 W 9.4 5 km (3 mi) WNW of Wheeler Ridge, CA
14186668 1.9 2005/09/22 13:55:00 35 1.7 N 119 2.2 W 16.8 9 km (6 mi) WNW of Wheeler Ridge, CA
14186672 2.9 2005/09/22 13:58:13 35 2.2 N 118 59.9 W 9.1 6 km (4 mi) NW of Wheeler Ridge, CA

The SCSN Moment Tensor Solution is shown below:

          ------- 
          ---------- ------ 
          ------------- P --------- 
          --------------- ----------- 
          --------------------------------- 
          ----------------------------------- 
          ------------------------------------- 
          --------------------------------------- 
          --#####################---------------- 
          #############################------------ 
          #################################-------- 
          ####################################----# 
          ################# ##################-## 
          -################ T ##################--# 
          -############### #################--- 
          --#################################---- 
          ---#############################----- 
          -----#######################------- 
          --------###############---------- 
          ----------------------------- 
          ------------------------- 
          ------------------- 
        ------- 

This moment tensor indicates a nodal plane striking east-west, which indicates thrust fault mechanism, not consistent with the San Andreas Fault. Due to the small size of the quake, no surface rupture should have occurred, which precludes the identification of the causal fault for this event. There are several faults in the area that fit the moment tensor.

The California State earthquake probability map.