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The Northridge earthquake occurred on January 17, 1994, at 04:31 a.m. Pacific Standard Time and was centered in Reseda, a neighborhood in the north-central San Fernando Valley region of Los Angeles, California. It had a duration of approximately 10–20 seconds. The earthquake had a "strong" moment magnitude (Mw) of 6.7, but the ground acceleration was one of the highest ever instrumentally recorded in an urban area in North America, measuring 1.8g (16.7 m/s2) with strong ground motion felt as far away as Las Vegas, Nevada, about 220 miles (360 km) from the epicenter. The peak ground velocity in this earthquake at the Rinaldi Receiving station was 183 cm/s (4.09 mph or 6.59 km/h), the fastest peak ground velocity ever recorded. In addition, two 6.0 Mw aftershocks occurred, the first about one minute after the initial event and the second approximately 11 hours later, the strongest of several thousand aftershocks in all. The death toll was 57, with more than 5,000 injured. In addition, earthquake-caused property damage was estimated to be more than $20 billion, making it one of the costliest natural disasters in U.S. history.

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