Beno Gutenberg , a German-American seismologist , was the director of the Caltech Seismological Laboratory at the time of the shock . He commented about the event first by saying that the energy of the event was 100 times that of the 1933 Long Beach earthquake . In statements made in the July 22 '' Los Angeles Times '' , the shock was compared to the 1857 Fort Tejon event . He went on to say , " There is no doubt that yesterday 's quake is the largest Southern California has had in this century and is the largest to occur in this area since modern instruments were available . It 's possible that the 1857 quake might have been more intense . " Charles Richter departed the lab in Pasadena in a mobile seismograph truck bound for the epicentral area to record aftershocks close to the fault , and Harry O. Wood ( the founder of the lab thirty years prior ) visited the lab following the onset of the shocks and commented that it was still not possible to predict the location of large earthquakes
1933 Long Beach earthquake
1933 Long Beach earthquake
1952 Kern County earthquake