Map

Where it struck, with the other significant earthquakes within 200 km. Circles are sized and colored by magnitude; select one for its page.

The earthquake

Date: July 8, 1986
Time: 09:20:44 UTC
Place: Palm Springs, California, United States
Magnitude: 6 (Ms)
Magnitude scales: Ms 6 · mb 5.8
Focal depth: 12 km (7 mi)
Intensity: VII, very strong shaking, on the Modified Mercalli scale
Tsunami: None recorded
Epicenter: 34.000° N, 116.610° W
Country: United States
Region: North America and Hawaii
USGS record: The USGS’s page for this earthquake

Ms: surface-wave magnitude. mb: body-wave (P-wave) magnitude. NCEI’s headline magnitude is the best of these for the earthquake.

The toll

Injuries: 29
Damage: $4.5 million

Where the literature gives no number, NCEI records a description on a scale of 1 to 4, printed here in its words. Damage is in millions of US dollars of the year of the event, not adjusted for inflation.

From Wikipedia

The 1986 North Palm Springs earthquake occurred on July 8 at 02:20:44 local time with a moment magnitude of 6.0 and a maximum Mercalli Intensity of VII (Very strong). The shock occurred in a complex setting along the San Andreas Fault Zone where it bisects San Gorgonio Mountain and San Jacinto Peak at the San Gorgonio Pass and was the first in a series of three earthquakes that affected southern California and the northern Owens Valley in July 1986. Numerous strong motion instruments recorded the event, one of which showed relatively high accelerations. Between 29 and 40 people were injured, and financial losses were estimated to be in the range of $4.5–6 million.

Text from Wikipedia, “1986 North Palm Springs earthquake”, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Quoted as written; the full article has the rest.

What happened

The USGS’s account of the effects of this earthquake.

This strong earthquake injured 40 people in the North Palm Springs area and caused property damage estimated at $6 million. The most serious damage (VII) occured at the Devers substation of Southern California Edison Company. Also some residences in the Whitewater Canyon area were badly damaged. Damage (VI) at Angelus Oaks, Desert Hot Springs, North Palm Springs, Palm Desert, Palm Springs and Yucca Valley. Overall sixteen business structures and four houses were destroyed; 102 houses (mostly mobile homes) and 117 business structures were damaged to some degree. The earthquake disrupted electrical and telephone service, broke water lines and gas lines, and caused failure of two pumping stations in the Metropolitan Water District. North of Palm Springs, en echelon fractures formed along the Banning fault for a distance of about 9 km on both sides of State Highways 62. Several highways were closed temporarily by minor landslides.

Major damage to a highway bridge was observed on Interstate 10 in Coachella Valley northwest of Palm Springs. The bridge was displaced laterally, leaving a small gap between the deck and abutment. Three houses were destroyed and chimneys fell in the Whitewater Canyon area. Also sustaining damage was the Southern California Edison Devers substation, 3 km northwest of North Palm Springs. Many of the ceramic columns were broken at the substation, and one transformer was displaced about 4 cm, shearing retaining bolts. Several light aftershocks were reported felt. The main shock was felt over a large area, including parts of western Arizona, southern California, and southern Nevada.

Abridged from Seismicity of the United States, 1568-1989 (Revised), by Carl W. Stover and Jerry L. Coffman, U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 1527, United States Government Printing Office, Washington: 1993.

Maximum observed Modified Mercalli Intensity (MMI) VII

From the USGS event page for ci700917. U.S. Geological Survey text and figures are in the public domain.

Magnitude estimates

The magnitudes the USGS catalog lists for this earthquake, by scale and by who computed them. NCEI’s own scales are in the table above.

Mag.	Scale	Computed by	Notes
6.0	Mw, moment	Southern California Seismic Network	Preferred · Final · 0 stations
6.2	Mw, moment	USGS National Earthquake Information Center	Reviewed
6.02	Mw, moment	ISC-GEM global catalog	Final · ±0.1
6.2	Mw, moment	USGS historic United States catalog	Final
6.0	Mwc, centroid moment	Global CMT project	Preliminary

Sources NCEI cites

The publications NCEI lists for this record. The numbers match the “reference #” notes in its account above.

#1053 National Earthquake Information Center (NEIC) (1971 to 2013). Preliminary Determination of Epicenters (PDE), a weekly and monthly publication, National Earthquake Information Center, U.S. Geological Survey, Golden, Colorado, 1971 to 2013.
#1054 McClelland, Lindsay, et al, editors (1980-1989). SEAN Bulletin, a monthly publication of the Scientific Event Alert Network of the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
#1232 International Seismological Centre (1964-1990). Regional Catalogue of Earthquakes, 1964-1990, Edinburgh, Scotland.
#542 Stover, Carl W., and Jerry L. Coffman (1993). Seismicity of the United States, 1568-1989 (Revised), U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 1527, United States Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C., 418 p.

Other significant earthquakes nearby

Within 200 km, the deadliest first.

More

Significant earthquakes of 1986 The 1900s Every quake the USGS located in 1986 Recent earthquakes near here This day in weather history

Sources

Significant earthquakes from NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information, Global Historical Hazard Database, cited as NCEI/WDS, doi:10.7289/V5PN93H7. Public domain. Read 2026-10-01. NCEI earthquake 5100. The written accounts and the magnitude estimates are from the USGS earthquake catalog, event ci700917, matched to this record by time, place and magnitude.