The 2004 Parkfield quake was a 6.0
Ok, so maybe it wasn’t registered as 8.9, but that’s what the word was...and it sure felt like it where I was at.
The Northridge earthquake occurred on January 17, 1994 at 4:31 AM Pacific Standard Time in Reseda, a neighborhood in the city of Los Angeles, California. The earthquake had a “strong” moment magnitude of 6.7, but the ground acceleration was the highest ever instrumentally recorded in an urban area in North America.[1] Seventy-two people died as a result of the earthquake with more than 12,000 injured. In addition, the earthquake caused an estimated $12.5 billion in damage, making it one of the costliest natural disasters in U.S. history.