Well, it takes a scientist to get the correct, precise facts...LOL. ...
No, just someone more interested in being accurate than entertaining.
I was referring to the 1989 events near Mammoth Lakes, when I was working at Pine Creek mine. There was a swarm of small quakes under Mammoth Mountain in 1980.
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I'll admit I can't do this from memory, so I searched for the largest quakes in the 1980s within 30 miles of Mammoth and this is the result for quakes >5.5:
Year__Magnitudes
1980__6.47, 6.31, 6.22, 6, 5.89, 5.71
1981__6
1982__none
1983__5.56, 5.54
1984__6.03
1985__none
1986__6.35, 5.84, 5.72
1987__none
1988__none
1989__none
There are swarms of small quakes under Mammoth every year for appropriate values of "small". 1980 was the "big" year
Like with the "Mammoth Scenic Loop" road naming, there seems to be a effort to not scare people away from Whitney Portal...
The signs on Whitney Portal Road last Friday that said "No Water At Whitney Portal" seem more due to a lack of effort to communicate accurately than an effort not to scare.
Dale B. Dalrymple
