Preface ........................................................ ix
1 Introduction ................................................. 1
2 Earthquake mosaic of the Americas ........................... 15
2.1 Some preliminaries ..................................... 15
2.2 Northwest coastal Pacific zone and California .......... 18
2.3 North American intra-continental areas ................. 20
2.4 Western coastal Pacific zone of Mexico and Central
America ................................................ 21
2.5 The Caribbean loop ..................................... 22
2.6 South American and Andean zone ......................... 24
3 Myths and legends ........................................... 27
3.1 The historical role .................................... 27
3.2 Mytho-history of the Aztecs, Maya, and Incas ........... 33
4 Earthquake effects .......................................... 39
4.1 Seismic intensities and ground accelerations ........... 39
4.2 Fundamental principles of earthquake-resistant design .. 43
4.3 Directions of fall of monuments and tombstones ......... 45
4.4 Recent earthquake damage at Mitla and Monte Alban ...... 46
4.5 Maya architecture and the corbeled arch ................ 54
4.6 Archaeological indicators of past earthquake
occurrences ............................................ 59
5 Earthquakes of Mexico ....................................... 61
5.1 Pre-conquest Maya and Mexican codices .................. 61
5.2 Post-Cortesian Mexican codices ......................... 66
5.3 Earthquake recurrence in the modern era ................ 72
6 Earthquakes in the Maya empire .............................. 78
6.1 Geographic and tectonic setting ........................ 78
6.2 Historical seismic and volcanic activity ............... 80
6.3 Earthquakes at Quirigua, Guatemala ..................... 82
6.4 Evidence from Benque Viejo (Xunantunich), Belize ....... 93
6.5 Were there earthquakes at Copan, Honduras? ............. 96
6.6 Seibal, Guatemala ..................................... 101
6.7 Altar de Sacrificios and Xutilha, Guatemala ........... 103
6.8 Pusilhá, Belize ....................................... 107
7 Earthquakes of Costa Rica, Panama, and Colombia ............ 110
7.1 Legends and early history ............................. 110
7.2 Tectonic and seismic setting of Costa Rica and
Panama ................................................ 111
7.3 Seismic framework of Colombia ......................... 116
8 Earthquakes of Peru and Chile .............................. 119
8.1 Great Peruvian earthquakes ............................ 119
8.2 Evidence for prehistoric events ....................... 123
8.3 Earthquakes at Cuzco .................................. 126
8.4 Disastrous landslides ................................. 130
8.5 Tsunami of the coast of Chile ......................... 135
9 Early California earthquakes ............................... 142
9.1 Los Angeles Basin earthquake of July 28, 1769 ......... 142
9.2 The earthquakes of 1812 and 1836 ...................... 143
9.3 The 1838 San Andreas fault earthquake ................. 149
9.4 Fort Tejon, California earthquake of January 9, 1857 .. 150
9.5 Owens Valley, California earthquake of March 26.
1872 .................................................. 153
10 Earthquakes of the North American Cordillera ............... 155
10.1 The Basin and Range Province and the Interrnountain
Seismic Belt .......................................... 155
10.2 Sonora, Mexico earthquake of May 3,1887 ............... 160
10.3 Death Valley, California earthquakes .................. 165
11 Earthquakes of eastern and central North America ........... 170
11.1 Great Quebec earthquake of 1663 ....................... 170
11.2 Charleston, South Carolina earthquake of 1886 ......... 172
11.3 New Madrid earthquakes of 1811-1812 ................... 175
11.4 Texas earthquakes ..................................... 182
12 Conclusions and speculations ............................... 183
Appendix A Data relating magnitude to extent of Modified
Mercalli intensity of VII .................................. 194
Appendix В Data relating magnitude to area of Mexican
earthquakes with Modified Mercalli intensity ≥ VI .......... 200
Appendix С Rossi-Forel Seismic Intensity Scale ................ 202
Glossary ...................................................... 204
Bibliographic summaries ....................................... 208
References .................................................... 216
Index ......................................................... 266
The plates are situated between pages 84 and 85.
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