After the Loma Prieta earthquake of 1989 rocked the greater San Francisco Bay area, the National Science Foundation created the National Clearinghouse for Loma Prieta Earthquake Information. The clearinghouse gathered and classified data from a wide variety of sources then published and distributed Loma Prieta Clearinghouse Catalogs listing hundreds of sources of information on or about the earthquake. Materials are still available from the Earthquake Engineering Research Center Library.

In 1991, a complementary project called the Loma Prieta Data Archive was established with funds from the US Geological Survey (USGS) to gather, organize, and archive raw data associated with the Loma Prieta earthquake. Under the general editorship of the U.S. Geological Survey, the National Earthquake Hazards Program (NEHRP) issued the official report to Congress describing the post-earthquake investigation of the October 17, 1989, Loma Prieta, California earthquake. That report synthesized results of earthquake research performed by a wide range of investigators using a variety of data sets generated by the earthquake or as result of research into the earthquake. Twenty-four data sets are included in the archive.

Because nonprint data is seldom published in the open literature it is important to organize and preserve the data for future scholarship. The Loma Prieta earthquake was the first major earthquake in the San Francisco Bay Area since 1906 and was the first to occur in a highly populated, heavily instrumented area. These data contribute a baseline for research into future earthquakes in this area and elsewhere.

The Table of Contents lists the datasets that are available on CDROM, as well as some that can be downloaded directly from this site.

For more information contact:

EERC Library
1301 S. 46th Street RFS 453
University of California
Richmond, California 94804

Phone: (510) 665-3419
Fax: (510) 665-3456
E-mail: eerclibrary@berkeley.edu