A preliminary study of the Santa Barbara, California, earthquake of August 13, 1978, and its major aftershocks

Abstract

The ML5.1 Santa Barbara earthquake of August 13, 1978 occurred at lat 34' 22.2'N., long 119 ? 43.0' 4 km south of Santa Barbara, Calif. at a depth of 12.5 km in the northeast Santa Barbara Channel, part of the western Transverse Ranges geomorphic-structural province. This part of the province is characterized by seismically active, east-trending reverse faults and rates of coastal uplift that have averaged up to about 10 m/1000 years over the last 45,000 years. No surface rupture was detected onshore. Subsurface rupture propagated northwest from the main shock toward Goleta, 15 km west of Santa Barbara, where a maximum acceleration of 0.44 g was measured at ground level and extensive minor damage occurred; only minor injuries were reported. A fairly well-constrained fault-plane solution of the main shock and distribution of the aftershocks indicate that left-reverse-oblique slip occurred on west-northwest-trending, north-dipping reverse faults; inadequate dip control precludes good correlation with any one of several mapped faults. Had the earthquake been larger and rupture propagated to the southeast or a greater distance to the northwest, it could have posed a hazard to oilfield operations. The fault-plane solution and aftershock pattern closely fit the model of regional deformation and the solution closely resembles those of five previously mapped events located within a 15-km radius.