Portsmouth 4.2 earthquake of 1901

[orange-n-brown 365]

others in ohio also
hio

Earthquake History

An earthquake on June 18, 1875, caused damage in western Ohio, and affected a total area estimated at 104,000 square kilometers. Walls were cracked and chimneys thrown down (intensity VII) at Sidney and Urbana. The shock was felt sharply at Jeffersonville, Indiana; the affected area included parts of Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, and Missouri.

Slight damage (intensity VI) was reported at Lima from a September 19, 1884, earthquake. At Columbus, chandeliers kept swinging for several minutes after the tremor. The shock was felt at Washington, D.C., by workmen on top of the then unfinished Washington Monument, about 500 feet above the ground. This earthquake was felt throughout a broad area, from Pennsylvania to Kentucky and West Virginia to Michigan (about 324,000 square kilometers).

Several towns in southeastern Ohio experienced moderate damage on November 5, 1926. Chimneys toppled at Keno and Pomeroy (intensity VI to VII); in addition, a stove was overturned at Pomeroy. The earthquake was also felt at Letart, West Virginia.

A brief but strong shock was felt over a wide area in western Ohio on September 30, 1930. The strongest intensity at Anna knocked down a chimney on the school and caused plaster to crack and fall (intensity VII). The tremor was accompanied by a rumbling noise. Less than one year later (September 20, 1931), another damaging earthquake occurred in the same area. At Anna, Houston, and Sidney cornices were thrown down from church buildings, several chimneys were toppled, and plaster fell from some walls (intensity VII). Intensity V to VI was experienced over an area of approximately 100,000 square kilometers, including most of western Ohio and parts of Indiana and Kentucky.

On March 2, 1937, much additional damage occurred at Anna. Plaster fell and walls cracked in a school house (intensity VII), which was later declared unsafe. Many chimneys were thrown down and other minor damage was inflicted at Anna, Sidney, and Wapokoneta; in Bellefontaine and Lima, alarm was general but damage was minor. Two to five shocks were felt in many places. The total felt area included approximately 181,000 square kilometers in Ohio, Indiana, and Michigan; felt reports were also received from a few places in Illinois, Kentucky, West Virginia, and Wisconsin, and one place in Canada.

The next day, March 3, at 3:50 a.m., a moderate earthquake (intensity V) shook the same area. It awakened many persons, rattled windows, and shook some bricks from chimneys.

The strongest tremor of this series occurred at 11:45 p.m., March 8, 1937. At Anna, chimneys repaired after the March 2 earthquake were again thrown down, with scarcely a chimney undamaged (intensity VII to VIII). Organ pipes were twisted in one church and other church and school buildings were badly cracked. A few chimneys also fell at Sidney and there was damage to plaster. The affected area was much larger than that of the previous earthquake. The 388,000 square kilometer area covered all of Ohio and Indiana, parts of Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan, and a few places in Missouri, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Ontario, Canada.

Outstanding phenomena common to both the March 2 and March 8 earthquakes were the rotation of tombstones and subsurface changes revealed by the activities of wells. Marked changes in the behavior of wells were reported from Botkins, Huntsville, and New Knoxville.

On March 9, 1943, an earthquake centered east of Cleveland, was felt over a 100,000 square kilometer area, but only caused minor damage at points nearest the epicenter. Reports of cracked plaster and broken windows and dishes (intensity V) were received after the shock. It was noted over a large part of Ohio and in parts of Michigan, New York, and Pennsylvania, and Ontario, Canada.

On June 20, 1952, an early morning (3:38 a.m.) tremor awoke most of the people in the Zanesville area. An old chimney was toppled (intensity VI), doors were thrown open, pictures shook, and dished rattled. The earthquake was felt over about 26,000 square kilometers in southeastern Ohio.

[kantuckyII]

I wondered what happened to Spartan Stadium, now I know. You don't know if you're going slither through a crack there or have something slither out of a crack and get you. It's scary!

[caglewis]

Wasn't there something relatively more recent - say mid-to-late 1980's? [My kids were out of high school.]
It affected a Reds game in Detroit? [Why were they playing in Detroit?] The stadium shook - Marty and Joe talked about it on the Reds radio broadcast. My son noticed it in the Dayton/Columbus area, discounted the sensation, then heard it mentioned/confirmed on the Reds radio broadcast on his car radio.

I remember the one in 1980 [time-frame fits] - I was on my way [traveling up Route 23] to take my kids to a Church Camp located north of Columbus.
We stopped by my uncle's home near Circleville on our way there to visit briefly with my cousin who was home here in Ohio on a visit from California.
I continued on to deliver my kids to Camp by the designated time, but then stopped back by Williamsport on my way home to Ironton. The earthquake had happened in that intervening time while I was on the road in a moving car, so I didn't really notice it. But they did feel the ground movement there; and their house shook, and their front picture window suddenly cracked. [How ironic that they had a California visitor back home in Ohio at that exact time!]
My earthquake-savvy, California-resident cousin was saying of the event, "Earthquake - probably a 4 - 4.5, a roller not a shaker", and she was dead on. [We all "blamed" her for bringing it here to Ohio from California with her!]


And I remember another earth shaking event here in southern Ohio, maybe late 1970's.
I had worked a night shift [summer of 1979?] and was sleeping in the afternoon. My kids [still home, maybe jr high age] woke me up excitedly saying, "Mommy, there's something wrong with the couch - it's shaking"; and my immediate response on awakening was "never mind the couch - the whole house is shaking"!
I can't place the dates/times any more precisely, but I have three separate, distinct, memories of "earthquake" events occurring in our general [not particularly earthquake-prone] Ohio area over the last 30 years or so.

[orange-n-brown 365]

I remember one late 70's we were at Grandma's and Grandpa's in Hocking Co. and we heard things rattle.. didn't know until the next day in the paper what had happened..

[biggdowgg]

^^^^^ how did you mages to mess that up?


Caglewis, posted it..and you quated it as if Tobias did

[caglewis]

biggdowgg - according to another poster on another thread, we're both "foolish posters". FIDO didn't make that cut [but maybe he's an "and others"].
Should WE be proud; or should HE? [Maybe a question best not answered!]

Apparently, some are too foolish to either read the entire thread or to get a joke. Those foolish posters include caglewis, biggdowgg and others.

[BubbleGumTiger]

I wondered what happened to Spartan Stadium, now I know. You don't know if you're going slither through a crack there or have something slither out of a crack and get you. It's scary!