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II.—The Charleston Earthquake of August 31st, 1886, in a New Light

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 May 2009

William Herbert Hobbs
William Herbert Hobbs
Affiliation:
Professor of Geology in the University of Michigan, and Secretary to the Committee of Seismology of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
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Extract

With few exceptions, surface dislocations within the earth's crust or ‘earthquake-faults,’ have been described in connection with all earthquakes of large proportions. The Charleston earthquake of August 31st, 1886, stands out in some contrast with most others in this particular, and it is further in contrast with some other earthquakes for the reason that the phenomena recorded in connection with it have not as yet been brought into any relation with the structural geology of the district. A partial explanation of this may perhaps be found in the fact that the area most disturbed—the so-called ‘epicentral tract’—is entirely included within the coastal plain of the South-Eastern United States. Upon this plain the basement of rock is covered to very considerable depths by unconsolidated material, and it would perhaps be too much to expect that displacements upon fracture planes in the rock would be revealed in full measure at the surface.

Type
Original Articles
Information
Geological Magazine , Volume 4 , Issue 5 , May 1907 , pp. 197 - 202
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1907

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References

page 197 note 1 For a list of such dislocations formed in connection with the better known earthquakes, see Gerland's “Beitraege zur Geophysik,” vol. viii (1907), pp. 236–253.

page 197 note 2 Dutton, C. E., “The Charleston Earthquake of August 31st, 1886. 9th Ann. Rep. U.S. Geol. Surv., 1890, pp. 203–528.Google Scholar

page 198 note 1 Hobbs, W. H., “Topographic Features formed at the time of Earthquakes, and on the Origin of the Mounds in the Gull Plain”: Amer. Journ. Sci., 4th ser., vol. xxiii (1907), pp. 245–256.Google Scholar

page 198 note 2 Loc. cit., pl. xxviii.

page 200 note 1 Loc. cit., pp. 282–306.

page 200 note 2 All distances are from the Charleston terminus.