The largest historical earthquake known in Colorado occurred on 7 November 1882. Knowledge of its size, location, and specific tectonic environment is important for the design of critical structures in the rapidly growing region of the Southern Rocky Mountains. More than one century later, on 18 October 1984, an mb 5.3 earthquake occurred in the Laramie Mountains, Wyoming. By studying the 1984 earthquake, we are able to provide constraints on the location and size of the 1882 earthquake. Analysis of broadband seismic data shows the 1984 mainshock to have nucleated at a depth of 27.5 ± 1.0 km and to have ruptured ‖ 2.7 km updip, with a corresponding average displacement of about 48 cm and average stress drop of about 180 bars. This high stress drop may explain why the earthquake was felt over an area about 3.5 times that expected for a shallow earthquake of the same magnitude in this region. A microearthquake survey shows aftershocks to be just above the mainshock's rupture, mostly in a volume measuring 3 to 4 km across. Focal mechanisms for the mainshock and aftershocks have NE-SW-trending T axes, a feature shared by most earthquakes in western Colorado and by the induced Denver earthquakes of 1967.
