The epicenter of the magnitude 7.1 quake was located about 10 miles northeast of Santa Cruz along a segment of the San Andreas fault, near Loma Prieta peak, the highest peak in the Santa Cruz Mountains. It was felt over an area of about 54,000 square miles. The rupture occurred on a 30-mile length of the San Andreas fault called the Santa Cruz Mountains segment. The focus was eleven and a half miles underground at a spot near China Ridge in Nisene Marks State Park. The land on the seaward side of the fault slipped five and a half feet northwest.

The Loma Prieta quake was the largest earthquake to occur in the San Francisco Bay Area since 1906, and the largest, at the time, anywhere in California since 1952. The earthquake was responsible for 67 deaths, 3,757 injuries, and about 7 billion dollars w

The Loma Prieta quake basically repeats an 1865 event that occurred on the San Andreas, northeast of Santa Cruz. The lack of activity on this section of the fault, as well as the occurrence of several magnitude 5.0+ events in the area had prompted geologists to forecast this event.

The number of aftershocks for the Loma Prieta earthquake is typical for earthquakes in California.

The Loma Prieta earthquake occurred in an area that had been identified in several studies as having a relatively high probability of an earthquake of a 6.5 magnitude or greater. The occurrence of the Loma Prieta earthquake in the forecast area has served to validate the approach used to develop the probability estimates. Since the event has occurred, it can be used to calibrate the measurements and procedures used to make such probability estimates elsewhere. Several other segments of faults in California have similar probabilities for producing earthquakes of similar size over the next several decades.

The Loma Prieta rupture is unusual for earthquakes on the San Andreas fault. Past earthquakes have been the result of horizontal slip of the ground on the two sides of the fault, with the southwest side moving northwest relative to the northeast s

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