Whiteford studied all earthquakes this century of more than 5.8 on the Richter scale. But for bigger quakes the records are detailed and complete for the entire planet. So Whiteford was able to make a simple comparison of the earthquake rate in the first half of the century, before nuclear testing, and the rate for 1950 to 1988. In the fifty years before testing, large earthquakes of more than 5.8 occurred at an average rate of 68 per year. The earthquake rate has almost doubled.
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All materials may be reproduced without permission. Another test was conducted only four days afterwards. Three days later, a series of heavy earthquakes as high as 7.6 on the Richter scale rocked the Mojave desert 176 miles to the south. They were the biggest earthquakes to hit California this century. It was the biggest earthquake ever recorded near the test site and caused one-million dollars of damage to buildings in an area designated for permanent dispoasal of highly radiocative nuclear wastes only fifteen miles from the epicenter of the earthquake.