What are the main earthquake hazards?
Ground shaking from the 1934 magnitude 6.6 Hansel Valley (north end of Great Salt Lake) earthquake damaged structures 80 miles away in Salt Lake City. Ground shaking: is the most damaging and widespread earthquake hazard, can occur almost anywhere and is difficult to avoid (but house retro-fits can minimize damage), induces most of the other earthquake hazards, and can cause damage to houses in earthquakes as small as magnitude 5.0, which on average occur once every four years somewhere in Utah and once every 10 years in the Wasatch Front region (most recent event was the 1992 magnitude 5.8 St. George earthquake).