July 14, 1934 Earthquake: Guanajuato, Queretaro, Mexico

The damage descriptions by Hisazumi (1934) can be summarized as follows: at Comonfort the frontispiece of the church has a vertical fracture. The town hall showed vertical fractures above several windows and doors along the axes of these openings, and one wall collapsed partly. Many of the residential buildings were fractured vertically near their corners. At Neutla the church, the school, and numerous residential buildings were fractured. At Empalme Escobedo (formerly known as Empalme Gonzalez), a historical railroad center, the railway station building showed some minor vertical cracks in the door moldings, and near keystones. The schoolhouse showed major vertical fractures near its corners, and one building corner was ruined. The building of the railroad workers union, made from adobe, showed cracks in the east–west-oriented walls near their corners, and inside the building some plaster fell. In the case of several other buildings, the beams supporting their flat roofs were shifted apart such that some tiles fell inside the buildings, whereas other tiles, remaining on the roof, were fractured. At Soria, Hisazumi (1934) provides damage descriptions from the local textile factory and the church. The factory building showed numerous vertical fractures near corners and in east–west-oriented walls, which, however, did not affect the stability of the construction. Some beams, supported by north–south-oriented walls, were shifted by 2–3 cm. However, the shocks did not cause any diagonal fractures, neither did any wall cave in. Some clay sculptures, forming part of the frontispiece of the factory building, lost their unattached heads. The church showed vertical fractures near the keystones of the arches and near wall corners, which indicates that the keystones and building corners caused an increase in the intensity of stress. At San Juan de la Vega, the federal school building, made from adobe, showed big vertical fractures near the wall corners, and numerous residential buildings, of poor construction quality, were fractured. Similarly, at San Miguel Octopan most of the residential buildings, made from adobe, showed considerable vertical fractures. Moreover, the window corners, keystones, and arches of the parish church were fractured.

The 14 July 1934 mainshock is documented by instrumental recordings at the Tacubaya observatory and macroseismic observations at ten population centers ranging in intensity between five and seven on the MMI scale. Based on the size of the damage area, the intensity magnitude of the mainshock is estimated at 4.8 ± 0.5.

(above from reference #13743)