COMMENTARY: The Day The Earth Shook in Cochise County

http://www.svherald.com/opinion ^ | Pat O'Hare

[SandRat]

A major earthquake tremor stopped all the clocks in Tombstone at 3:06 p.m. May 3, 1887. It sounded liked the explosion of dynamite echoing through the town, with the earth shaking violently. People ran screaming into the streets, merchandise and glassware crashed to the floor from their shelves, gaping holes appeared in buildings on Allen Street. A reporter from the Tombstone Prospector newspaper pulled out his watch and counted the 35 seconds the earthquake lasted. Eight minutes later, a second shock of about two seconds; a third shock was hardly felt, about 4:15 p.m.

Water spurted up out of the ground in great fountains out in the middle of the desert. Ten miles from Tombstone, a lake covering an acre of ground completely dried up in 20 minutes, as reported by the Tucson Citizen Newspaper of May 4, 1887. This was confirmed to have been Kimballs Lake near Fairbank, according to the State of Arizona Bureau of Geology and Mineral Technology at the University of Arizona in their Special Paper No. 3, dated December 1980, regarding this tremor. Some say the San Pedro River’s course was changed from South to North that day, that it went largely underground and locals say that the sound of rushing waters may still be heard from the inside of a cave near the site of Charleston.

The water line snapped between Tombstone and the water storage tank in the Huachucas, where the shock had lasted fully three minutes. Fires surrounded the horizon, smoke shut out the sun. The many large mesquite trees that had dotted the open range were burned to their roots. All the grass was destroyed and many cattle died of starvation.

Deep underground, William F. Staunton was working as a mining engineer in the Toughnut Mine. After a loud explosion and a thunderous roar, loose rock came crashing down from the walls. He told his partner, “It’s an earthquake, get under something, quick!” to which he retorted: “Lord knows I’m under enough already!”

Charleston was hit hard. The quake there lasted only 30 seconds, but the ground shook so violently that every building in town was damaged. Many of the adobe homes fell into the river and were swept away.

There was a rush of water in Sulphur Springs Valley. Water shot up into the air to a considerable height, 4 or 5 feet in width, and extended fully 100 feet in distance.

In Bisbee, the Prospector’s correspondent, W.F. Banning, said that boulders rolled down the steep walls of the town for 10 minutes with reports like cannon shots, beginning at 3:12 p.m. and lasting 10 minutes.

St. David was shaken for three full minutes. Buildings collapsed and part of the schoolhouse was ruined. Water was dumped out of irrigation ditches. The water level changed abruptly on the day of the quake, and artesian ponds suddenly appear in the valley adjacent to the village. Fearing aftershocks, the community slept outdoors that night.

Shortly after 3 p.m. in Benson, buildings began to sway and several developed large cracks. Waves of aftershocks played with a Southern Pacific engine like a child’s toy, pushing it to and fro on its tracks. Residents rushed into the streets, fearing they would be crushed by toppling buildings. The Whetstone Mountains were covered with fire and smoke which many assumed represented volcanic activity.

In Tucson, huge boulders came crashing headlong into the valley from the Santa Catalina Mountains, striking together like flint to catch the grasses and dry wood afire. For weeks the citizens saw nothing but smoke and fire, believing that their beautiful mountains had been destroyed.

Strong shock waves had reached out 400 miles, from Northeastern Mexico at Vavispe, Sonora (the epicenter of the quake), north to Phoenix (where it rang church bells), southern Arizona, New Mexico and western Texas. In 1977, the late Professor John S. Sumner, Dept. Geo-Sciences, U of A, estimated that it would have measured about an 8.1 on the Richter Scale, which was not invented until 1935.

[Rebelbase]

What caused the fires in the countryside?

[Jet Jaguar]

Bump

[gleeaikin]

Sounds like it might have been part of a pattern of nervous earth coming less than a year after the summer 1886 Charleston Earthquake. Other nervous earth events in our part of the world for an approximate 30 year period before things quieted down include The major eruptions in 1902 of Mt. Pelee in Martinique, La Soufriere in St. Vincent, Santa Maria in Guatemala and the monster 1911 eruption of Katmai/Novarupta in Alaska. San Francisco 1906 was part of this restless pattern. I think/hope we may be nearing the end of another such cycle which I see starting with Pinatubo in 1981 and perhaps ending with the great Japan earthquake. But perhaps not, and maybe the culmination will be an 8 or plus earthquake in the US or a major volcanic explosion.