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Chimneys Fall And General Damage Is Done In Town Of Sevier County
Inhabitants Seek Safety
Fourteen Earthquakes in Two Days--Disturbances Confined to Limited District
Elsinore, Jan. 12--Fourteen earthquake shocks have been felt here in the last two days, two on Tuesday night being so severe that it shook down chimneys, destroyed merchandise on the store shelves and raised such general havoc that today a number of inhabitants are leaving for more solid ground. The quakes Tuesday night occurred at 8 and 8:15 o'clock respectively, both of them of lengthy duration and intense.
Six distinct earthquake shocks occurred Monday the first coming shortly after 6 o'clock in the morning and the second half an hour later. School was dismissed. A recess was taken at the school at 11:45 because of a severe shock and was finally dismissed for the day at 1:35 o'clock in the afternoon because of another severe shaking. Other heavy tremors came at 2:30 and 3 o'clock.
These shocks were not felt with the exception of the first, at Richfield and Marysvale, but a short distance away. It is a puzzle to all why the quakes are confined so distinctly to this one point. The shakes caused a general alarm as the memory of the great disturbance of eight years ago is still vivid in the memory of local inhabitants.
[Deseret Evening News; January 12, 1910]
Special Correspondence
Richfield, Jan. 11--Richfield and vicinity have experienced several quite distinct earthquake shocks within the last few days. The hardest shock was felt about eight o'clock yesterday morning and slight tremors in the middle of the day and several distinct tremors were felt about the same hour this morning.
[Deseret Evening News; January 13, 1910]
Richfield, Jan. 10--The people of Richfield were rudely awakened from slumbers this morning by a severe earthquake shock which passed over this valley shortly after 6 o'clock. Every house in this city was shaken, dishes and furniture were displaced and the town shaken to its center. While no serious damage resulted to buildings the shock was most alarming.
[Salt Lake Herald-Republican; January 11, 1910]
Richfield, Jan. 11--Earthquake shocks continued at intervals all day yesterday throughout this valley. The heaviest shock came at 11:43 o'clock yesterday forenoon. In Richfield it was very distinct and at Elsinore it was so severe that children in school were thrown into a panic by the shaking and trembling of the school house. School was dismissed at once.
The seismic waves came from the east and reports from Lea were to the effect that the shocks were so severe there that windows were broken and considerable damage done by repeated shocks.
This morning at 8:10 there was another severe shock in Richfield, and there is considerable alarm among the people.
[Salt Lake Herald-Republican; January 12, 1910]
Richfield Shocks Not Recorded By Seismograph At University Of Utah
According to Professor Fred C. Pack of the University of Utah, any slight disturbance in the fault block which extends across the middle and southeastern section of the state might produce a considerable seismic disturbance in those districts without affecting in any great measure other sections. This would explain the fact that there was a recent heavy earthquake in the vicinity of Richfield, Utah, which not only did not make itself felt outside its own immediate zone, but produced no record on the seismograph at the University.
This fault block, Professor Pack states, extends across the state from Manti to the Colorado line and down through the southeastern part of the state and across the Colorado river into Arizona. The nature of the formation of the earth throughout this section is such that there might be slight disturbances in the layers constituting the earth there without there being any disturbance anywhere else in the state. A slide of one of the blocks of the fault, for example, might shake the earth in that vicinity and produce no effect at all anywhere else in the state.
This is shown by the fact that the recent earthquake at Richfield left no official record on the instruments at the University. The disturbances in the country about the northern part of Great Salt lake were recorded only slightly by the instruments at the University and in several of the cases were not recorded at all. Just what should be the explanation of this particular phenomenon Professor Pack does not undertake to explain.
These vibrations in the earth travel for a greater distance when the ground is hard than they do when the ground is of a less firm composition. It is likely that the ground in the localities which have been affected in the recent disturbances was such that the disturbances did not travel any great distance. The professor stated that he could give a number of cases in which there had been quite serious disturbances in different sections of the state where no records had been shown on the seismograph.
The professor said that he had received numerous reports of a heavy disturbance in the vicinity of Richfield, especially last Sunday, and there had been no confirmation by his instruments. This latter fact, however, did not affect the value of the reports from the places affected, since the formation of the earth at those points was such that vibrations need not necessarily travel to other places.
[Salt Lake Herald-Republican; January 13, 1910]
Professor Pack Explains Phenomena Of The "Shake" At Richfield
Mother Earth was merely cuddling a little closer to herself when a shock resembling an earthquake was felt in Sevier county Wednesday, according to Professor Fred J. Pack of the University of Utah. Great earth-blocks were merely shifting. There was no earthquake, and not the faintest tremor was registered on the seismograph at the University.
Professor Pack says that the shock may have been severe in the locality, but not severe enough to have been felt for any distance.
"There is a long fault plane reaching from the Grand Canyon of the Colorado," he said, "somewhere below Kanab, north past Panguitch, Marysvale, Elsinore and up to Ephraim. It would then pass Richfield and vicinity, where the shock was caused by the slipping of this fault and, while it may have been severe at the point of origin, it might have lost its force before going far and consequently was not felt except in the immediate locality.
"The thermal springs in that locality are located on this fault plane, and the friction caused by the slipping of the earth-blocks keeps the water hot. I can't say what made the water turn red without an investigation. All of the hot springs of Utah are located on fault planes."
Professor Pack says that the shock was not of sufficient severity to warrant an investigation by the university.
[Salt Lake Herald-Republican; January 14, 1910]
Richfield, Jan. 11--An earthquake shock was felt here Tuesday morning at 8:10 o'clock. Richfield and surrounding towns have felt slight trembles at intervals during the past day and night.
[Salt Lake Tribune; January 13, 1910]
Return to Elsinore Earthquake Summary.
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