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N0KFQ > TODAY 26.03.15 17:00l 51 Lines 2278 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 51272_N0KFQ
Read: GUEST
Subj: Today in History - Mar 26
Path: IW8PGT<IZ3LSV<I0OJJ<N6RME<N0KFQ
Sent: 150326/1500Z 51272@N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA BPQ1.4.63
1872
Deadly earthquake hits California
An earthquake felt from Mexico to Oregon rocks the Owens Valley
in California on this day in 1872, killing 30 people.
California, with the large San Andreas Fault running through the
entire state, is a prime area for earthquakes. At 2:30 a.m. on
March 26, a large quake hit Inyo County in the Owens Valley of
central California. Worst-hit was Lone Pine, where 52 of the
town's 59 homes were destroyed, killing 27 people as they slept.
The ground moved a full seven feet horizontally in some places
near Lone Pine. Major buildings in every town in Inyo were also
seriously damaged.
Given the reach of this quake_people hundreds of miles away in
Tijuana, Mexico, felt the shaking_it is estimated that it had a
magnitude of 7.8. One of most famous accounts of this earthquake
came from explorer and scientist John Muir, the man who was
instrumental in the establishment of Yosemite National Park. He
was working as a caretaker at Black's Hotel in the area at the
time and witnessed the destruction of the famed natural landmark
Eagle Rock. He reported the following: The shocks were so violent
and varied, and succeeded one another so closely, one had to
balance in walking as if on the deck of a ship among the waves,
and it seemed impossible the high cliffs should escape being
shattered. In particular, I feared that the sheer-fronted
Sentinel Rock, which rises to a height of three thousand feet,
would be shaken down, and I took shelter back of a big Pine,
hoping I might be protected from outbounding boulders, should any
come so far. Then, suddenly, out of the strange silence and
strange motion there came a tremendous roar. The Eagle Rock, a
short distance up the valley, had given way, and I saw it falling
in thousands of the great boulders I had been studying so long,
pouring to the valley floor in a free curve luminous from
friction, making a terribly sublime and beautiful spectacle_an
arc of fire fifteen hundred feet span, as true in form and as
steady as a rainbow, in the midst of the stupendous roaring
rock-storm.
For the next two months, there were literally a thousand
aftershocks, though none were deadly.
73, K.O. n0kfq
N0KFQ @ N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA
E-mail: kohiggs@gmail.com
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