Earthquakes in Salt Lake City

Salt Lake City faces high earthquake risk from the Wasatch Fault, one of the longest and most active normal faults in the western United States, which runs directly along the base of the mountains on the city's eastern edge. Geologists estimate the fault can produce earthquakes up to about magnitude 7.5 and has repeatedly done so in prehistoric times, with major surface-rupturing quakes recurring roughly every few hundred to a thousand years. The Salt Lake City segment is considered overdue relative to its long-term average.

The region got a wake-up call in March 2020 when a magnitude-5.7 earthquake struck near Magna, just west of the city, damaging buildings and toppling the trumpet from the Angel Moroni statue atop the Salt Lake Temple. A far larger Wasatch Fault event remains the primary concern, especially because much of the urban area is built on soft lakebed sediments from ancient Lake Bonneville that would strongly amplify shaking and are highly susceptible to liquefaction.