The 1959 Madison Canyon landslide occurred on the evening of August 17, triggered by the 1959 Hebgen Lake earthquake. It blocked the Madison River, forming Quake Lake. 26 people who were camping in the area were killed.
The earthquake struck at 11:37 Mountain Time (06:37 UTC on August 18). It had a magnitude of 7.3-7.5 on the moment magnitude scale and a maximum perceived intensity of X on the Mercalli intensity scale. It caused numerous landslides in the epicentral area, of which the Madison Canyon landslide was the most destructive. A total of 29 people were killed, 26 being caused by the Madison Canyon slide and three others by rockfalls in other areas.
The Noto Peninsula lies on the southeastern margin of the Sea of Japan that was formed by
back-arc
rifting related to
subduction of the
Pacific Plate beneath the
Eurasian Plate. This process began during the
Early Miocene, ending in the
Middle Miocene. By the
Pliocene the tectonic regime changed to compression, with reactivation of the rift faults in reverse sense, combined with
inversion of the basins formed by these faults.
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