Earthquake
1811-1812
Late in 1811, Newport
was just beginning to emerge from the wilderness. Kentucky statehood had been
granted only a few years before, and settlers of European descent were
establishing small communities across the landscape. This was land with a
written history that spanned only a couple of decades. Moderate earthquakes
having uncertain epicenter locations had been felt in the Ohio Valley in 1776
and in 1791 or 1792, but no segment of the population, indigenous or immigrant,
could anticipate from oral or written history the extent and power of the great
earthquake sequence that began on December 16, 1811.
In the early hours of December 16, most Ohio and Kentucky residents were deep in
sleep, unaware that the primary or P wave from a tremendous earthquake was
speeding toward them at nearly 14,000 miles per hour. The initial shaking in
Newport began only a minute and 18 seconds after the vibrations left their point
of origin along an ancient crustal rift deep beneath the Mississippi River
valley in the boot heel region of southern Missouri, where that state joins with
Arkansas, Kentucky, and Tennessee. A minute later, the slower surface (S) waves
arrived in Kentucky and began the dangerous shaking that some observers said
lasted for several minutes. The first shock began to shake the city at 2:24 am
according to the journal kept by 26 year old Cincinnati physician and scientific
observer Daniel Drake.
Of the initial New
Madrid event of December 16, 1811, Daniel Drake, wrote:
"At 24 minutes past 2 o'clock A.M. mean time, the first shock occurred. The
motion was a quick oscillation or rocking, by most persons believed to be west
and east; by some south and north. Its continuance, taking the average of all
the observations I could collect, was six or seven minutes. Several persons
assert that it was preceded by a rumbling or rushing noise; but this is denied
by others, who were awake at the commencement. It was so violent as to agitate
the loose furniture of our rooms; open partition doors that were fastened with
falling latches, and throw off the tops of a few chimnies in the vicinity of the
town. It seems to have been stronger in the valley of the Ohio, than in the
adjoining uplands. Many families living on the elevated ridges of Kentucky, not
more than 20 miles from the river, slept during the shock; which cannot be said,
perhaps of any family in town."
Of the large shock
on January 23, 1812, Drake wrote:
"About 9 o'clock A.M. a great number of strong undulations occurred in quick
succession. They continued 4 or 5 minutes, having two or three distinct
exacerbations during that time. An instrument constructed on the principle of
that used in Naples, at the time of the memorable Calabrian earthquakes, marked
the direction of the undulations from south-south-east to north-north-west. This
earthquake was nearly equal to that which commenced the series on the 16th
ultimo."
The Liberty Hall
(newspaper in Cincinnati) February 12, 1812
. . . on the morning of the 7th, at 32 minutes past 3 o'clock, apparent time, a
strong vibration occurred and was followed without intermission by two others;
the whole occupying, according to the best observations that were made, about
six minutes. They raised those sides of houses which face S.S.E. and W.S.W. One
of them threw a plum, hung by a line 7 feet long, three inches to the N.W. from
the point over which it ordinarily rested.
This was not only the strongest vibration that occurred at that time, but by far the most powerful that has been experienced here. It however, did less damage than was expected, by those who witnessed it. It threw down part of the top of one chimney in town, and of two in the vicinity of the town. It also widened the cracks that previously existed in some brick houses; and is said to have injured the Court-house. As that building, however, was already cracked, over several of the arches, from the bad execution of the masonry it is altogether uncertain to what extent it was injured by this shock.
These strong vibrations, are said by some, to have been preceded by a light and noise, but others who were awake and collected in mind and senses, observed neither.