Preparation of isoseismal maps and summaries of reported effects for pre-1900 California earthquakes

This is the second annual report of a three year project to clarify the earthquake history of California for the period before 1900. More than four thousand additional newspaper issues were searched for earthquake reports, bringing the total number of issues examined to more than eleven thousand. About one quarter of the issues searched have provided earthquake reports. Summaries of these reports, emphasizing the information used to assign earthquake intensities, were prepared. The strength and spatial distribution of the reported earthquake effects were used to estimate the magnitude and epicentral location of the earthquakes. The third annual report, projected for August 1981, will provide isoseismal maps showing the distribution of the intensity reports which control the estimates of magnitude and epicenter.