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Modified Mercalli Intensity Assignments for the May 16, 1909, Northern Plains Earthquake

By W.H. Bakun, M.C. Stickney, and G. Rogers

Summary We combine newspaper accounts and Nuttli‘s (1976) isoseismal map to assign modified Mercalli intensity (MMI) at 76 towns for the May 16, 1909 Northern Plains earthquake. The earthquake was felt across more than 1,500,000 km2 in the States of Minnesota, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wyoming and the Provinces of Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario, and Saskatchewan.

First posted Septermber 23, 2009 Report PDF (1.1 MB) Tables 1-4 as .xls files (108 kB) This report is available only on the Web. For additional information: Contact Information, Earthquake Hazards Program, Northern California U.S. Geological Survey 345 Middlefield Road, MS 977 Menlo Park, California 94025 http://quake.wr.usgs.gov/ Part of this report is presented in Portable Document Format (PDF); the latest version of Adobe Reader or similar software is required to view it. Download the latest version of Adobe Reader, free of charge.

Suggested citation:

Bakun, W.H., Stickney, M.C., and Rogers, G., 2009, Modified Mercalli intensty assignments for the May 16, 1909, Northern Plains earthquake: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 2009-1184, 57 p.

Contents

Summary

Introduction

Nuttli’s Assessment of the 1909 Earthquake

Newspaper Accounts of the 1909 Earthquake

MMI Assignments for the 1909 Earthquake

References

one appendix

four tables