Selected American history

CHAPTER XVII.

The Charleston and Other Earthquakes of the United States.

The twin continents of America have rivalled the record of the Old World in their experience of earthquakes since their discovery in 1492. The first of these made note of was in Venezuela in 1530, but they have been numerous and often disastrous since. Among them was the great shock at Lima in 1746, by which 18,000 were killed, and those at Guatemala in 1773, with 33,000, and at Riobamba in 1797, with 41,000 victims. It will, however, doubtless prove of more interest to our readers if we pass over these ruinous disasters and confine ourselves to the less destructive earthquakes which have taken place within our own country.

The United States, large a section of North America as it occupies, is fortunate in being in a great measure destitute of volcanic phenomena, while destructive earthquakes have been very rare in its history. This, it is true, does not apply to the United States as it is, but as it was. It has annexed the volcano and the earthquake with its new accessions of territory. Alaska has its volcanoes, the Philippines are subject to both forms of convulsion, and in Hawaii we possess the most spectacular volcano of the earth, while the earthquake is its common attendant. But in the older United States the volcano contents itself with an occasional puff of smoke, and eruptive phenomena are confined to the minor form of the geyser.

We are by no means so free from the earthquake. Slight movements of the earth's surface are much more common than many of us imagine, and in the history of our land there have been a number of earth shocks of considerable violence. Prior to that of San Francisco, the most destructive to life and property was that of Charleston in 1886, though the 1812 convulsion in the Mississippi Valley might have proved a much greater calamity but for the fact that civilized man had not then largely invaded its centre of action.

As regards the number of earth movements in this country, we are told that in New England alone 231 were recorded in two hundred and fifty years, while doubtless many slighter ones were left unrecorded. Taking the whole United States, there were 364 recorded in the twelve years from 1872 to 1883, and in 1885 fifty-nine were recorded, more than two-thirds of them being on the Pacific slope. Most of these, however, were very slight, some of them barely perceptible.

Confining ourselves to those of the past important in their effects, we shall first speak of the shocks which took place in New England in 1755, in the year and month of the great earthquake at Lisbon. On the 18th of November of that year, while the shocks at Lisbon still continued, New England was violently shaken, loud underground explosive noises accompanying the shocks. In the harbors along the Atlantic coast there was much agitation of the waters and many dead fish were thrown up on the shores. The shock, indeed, was felt far from the coast, by the crew of a ship more than two hundred miles out at sea from Cape Ann, Massachusetts.

This event, however, was of minor importance, being much inferior to that of 1812, in which year California and the Mississippi Valley alike were affected by violent movements of the earth's crust. The California convulsions took place in the spring and summer of that year, extending from the beginning of May until September. Throughout May the southern portion of that region was violently agitated, the shocks being so frequent and severe that people abandoned their houses and slept on the open ground. The most destructive shocks came in September, when two Mission houses were destroyed and many of their inmates killed. At Santa Barbara a tidal wave invaded the coast and flowed some distance into the interior.

It may be said here that California has proved more subject to severe shocks than any other section of our country. In 1865 sharp tremors shook the whole region about the Bay of San Francisco, many buildings being thrown down. Hardly any of brick or stone escaped injury, though few lives were lost. In 1872 a disturbance was felt farther west, the whole range of the Sierra Nevada mountains being violently shaken and the earth tremblings extending into the State of Nevada. The centre of activity was along the crest of the range, and immense quantities of rock were thrown down from the mountain pinnacles. A tremendous fissure opened along the eastern base of the mountain range for forty miles, the land to the west of the opening rising and that to the east sinking several feet. One small settlement, that of Lone Pine, in Owen's Valley, on the east base of the mountains, was completely demolished, from twenty to thirty lives being lost. Luckily, the region affected had very few inhabitants, or the calamity might have been great.

The earthquakes of 1812 in the Mississippi Valley began in December, 1811, and continued at intervals until 1813. As a rule they were more distinguished by frequency than violence, though on several occasions they were severe and had marked effects. They extended through the valleys of the Mississippi, Arkansas and Ohio, and their long continuance was remarkable in view of the territory affected being far from any volcanic region.

The surface of the valley of the Mississippi was a good deal altered by these convulsions—several new lakes being formed, while others were drained. Several new islands were also raised in the river, and during one of the shocks the ground a little below New Madrid was for a short time lifted so high as to stop the current of the Mississippi, and cause it to flow backward. The ground on which this town is built, and the bank of the river for fifteen miles above it, subsided permanently about eight feet, and the cemetery of the town fell into the river. In the neighboring forest the trees were thrown into inclined positions in every direction, and many of their trunks and branches were broken. It is affirmed that in some places the ground swelled into great waves, which burst at their summits and poured forth jets of water, along with sand and pieces of coal, which were tossed as high as the tops of trees. On the subsidence of these waves, there were left several hundreds of hollow depressions from ten to thirty yards in diameter, and about twenty feet in depth, which remained visible for many years afterward. Some of the shocks were vertical, and others horizontal, the latter being the most mischievous. These earthquakes resulted in the general subsidence of a large tract of country, between seventy and eighty miles in length from north to south, and about thirty miles in breadth from east to west. Lakes now mark many of the localities affected by the earthquake movements. It is only to the fact that this country was then very thinly settled that a great loss of life was avoided.

New Madrid, Missouri, was a central point of this earthquake, the shocks there being repeated with great frequency for several months. The disturbance of the earth, however, was not confined to the United States, but affected nearly half of the western hemisphere, ending in the upheaval of Sabrina in the Azores, already described. The destruction of Caracas, Venezuela, with many thousands of its inhabitants, and the eruption of La Soufriere volcano of St. Vincent Island were incidents of this convulsion. Dr. J. W. Foster tells us that on the night of the disaster at Caracas the earthquake grew intense at New Madrid, fissures being opened six hundred feet long by twenty broad, from which water and sand were flung to the height of forty feet.

The most destructive of earthquakes in our former history was that which visited Charleston, South Carolina, in 1886, the injury caused by it being largely due to the fact that it passed through a populous city. As it occurred after many of the people had retired, the confusion and terror due to it were greatly augmented, people fleeing in panic fear from the tumbling and cracking houses to seek refuge in the widest streets and open spaces.

South Carolina had been affected by the wide-spread earthquakes of 1812. These in some cases altered the level of the land, as is related in Lyell's "Principles of Geology." But the effect then was much less than in 1886. Several slight tremors occurred in the early summer of that year, but did not excite much attention. More distinct shocks were felt on August 27th and 28th, but the climax was deferred till the evening of August 31st. The atmosphere that afternoon had been unusually sultry and quiet, the breeze from the ocean, which generally accompanies the rising tide, was almost entirely absent, and the setting sun caused a little glow in the sky.

"As the hour of 9.50 was reached," we are told, "there was suddenly heard a rushing, roaring sound, compared by some to a train of cars at no great distance, by others to a clatter produced by two or more omnibuses moving at a rapid rate over a paved street, by others again, to an escape of steam from a boiler. It was followed immediately by a thumping and beating of the earth beneath the houses, which rocked and swayed to and fro. Furniture was violently moved and dashed to the floor; pictures were swung from the walls, and in some cases turned with their backs to the front, and every movable thing was thrown into extraordinary convulsions. The greatest intensity of the shock is considered to have been during the first half, and it was probably then, during the period of its greatest sway, that so many chimneys were broken off at the junction of the roof. The duration of this severe shock is thought to have been from thirty-five to forty seconds. The impression produced on many was that it could be subdivided into three distinct movements, while others were of the opinion that it was one continuous movement, or succession of waves, with the greatest intensity, as already stated, during the first half of its duration."

Twenty-seven persons were killed outright, and more than that number died soon after of their hurts or from exposure; many others were less seriously injured. Among the buildings, the havoc, though much less disastrous than has been recorded in some other earthquakes in either hemisphere, was very great. "There was not a building in the city which had escaped serious injury. The extent of the damage varied greatly, ranging from total demolition down to the loss of chimney tops and the dislodgment of more or less plastering. The number of buildings which were completely demolished and levelled to the ground was not great; but there were several hundreds which lost a large portion of their walls. There were very many also which remained standing, but so badly shattered that public safety required that they should be pulled down altogether. There was not, so far as at present is known, a brick or stone building which was not more or less cracked, and in most of them the cracks were a permanent disfigurement and a source of danger and inconvenience." In some places the railway track was curiously distorted. "It was often displaced laterally, and sometimes alternately depressed and elevated. Occasionally several lateral flexures of double curvature and of great amount were exhibited. Many hundred yards of track had been shoved bodily to the south eastward."

The ground was fissured at some places in the city to a depth of many feet, and numerous "craterlets" were formed, from which sand was ejected in considerable quantities. These are not uncommon phenomena, and were due, no doubt, to the squirting of water out of saturated sandy layers not far below the surface; these being squeezed between two less pervious beds in the passage of the earthquake wave. The ejected material in the Charleston earthquake was ordinary sand, such as might exist in many districts which had been quite undisturbed by any concussions of the earth.

Captain Dutton made a careful study of the observations collected by himself and others concerning this earthquake, and came to the conclusion that the Charleston wave traveled with unusual speed, for its mean velocity was about 17,000 feet a second. The focus of the disturbance was also ascertained. Apparently it was a double one, the two centres being about thirteen miles apart, and the line joining them running nearly the same distance to the west of Charleston. The approximate depth of the principal focus is given as twelve miles, with a possible error of less than two miles; that of the minor one as roughly eight miles.

The Charleston earthquake was felt as a tremor of more or less force through a wide area, embracing 900,000 square miles, and affecting nearly the whole country east of the Mississippi. It is said that the yield of the Pennsylvania natural gas wells decreased, and that a geyser in the Yellowstone valley burst into action after four years of rest. The movement of the earth-wave was in general north and south, deflected to east and west, and the snake-like fashion in which rails on the railroad were bent indicated both a vertical and a lateral force.

This earthquake has been attributed to various causes, but geological experts think that it was due to a slip in the crust along the Appalachian Mountain chain. There is a line of weakness along the eastern slope of this chain, characterized by fissures and faults, and it was thought that a strain had been gradually brought to bear upon this through the removal of earth from the land by rains and rivers and its deposition in thick strata on the sea-bottom. It is supposed that this variation in weight in time caused a yielding of the strata and a slip seaward of the great coastal plain. Professor Mendenhall, however, thinks it was due to a readjustment of the earth's crust to its gradually sinking nucleus.