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Rude Awakening
RICHFIELD--Residents of Richfield and the area around Bicknell in Wayne County were awakened from their sleep at 4:30 a.m. Wednesday by an earthquake which shook homes and rattled windows.
No damage was reported, except for a rock slide in Marysvale Canyon on U.S. 89 about 22 miles south of Richfield, apparently set off when the earth began to shake.
Road crews were clearing the debris off the highway Wednesday morning. The slide was reported by a motorist, Steve Womack, Covina, Calif. The Utah Highway Patrol also was checking Clear Creek Canyon area and the Glenwood Dugway area where rocky ledges might have crumbled off.
The tremor was estimated to have lasted 15 to 20 seconds in Richfield.
Mrs. Evangeline Tappan at Bicknell said, "We were awakened about 4:30 a.m. by the stairs in our house shaking and the clothes closets banging. All the windows rattled. I got dressed, but there were no more tremors.
"It was the worst I have felt since the San Francisco quake in 1906," she said. "We felt the tail end of that one here."
Mrs. Dyle Williams in Teasdale said she thought there was a herd of cattle running around her house.
One Richfield resident said the quake was accompanied by a noise like thunder.
Early reports indicated the quake might have been felt as far south as Cedar City and Kanab, but no Cedar City residents apparently were awakened by it.
However, at Beaver, about halfway between Richfield and Cedar City, residents were awakened by the tremor at 4:20 a.m. "It was not very violent, but just enough that we knew it was an earthquake," one resident said.
The latest previous quakes reported in Utah were two temblors which apparently started near Saltair on Sept. 25 and were of minor intensity. No damage was reported.
The Wednesday morning quake measured 4.7 on the Richter scale on the University of Utah seismograph and apparently was centered in the Loa and Bicknell area. It was believed to be the only one over 4.0 magnitude this year. The Denver quake on Aug. 9 measured 5.3 on the Richter scale.
[Deseret News; October 4, 1967]
An earthquake which rumbled across south central Utah Wednesday had an intensity of 5.0 on the Richter scale, the University of Utah said Thursday.
Larry Wilson, seismograph technician at the school, said detecting devices indicated the center of the quake was three miles north of Marysvale, Piute County, along a well-known earth fault.
A reading of 5.0 on the Richter scale is a fairly sharp shock, but not heavy enough to do really major damage. A quake measuring 5.5 (five times stronger) hit the area in 1921 and caused $200,000 damage.
[Deseret News; October 5, 1967]
A major earthquake shook, rattled and rocked the Richfield area early Wednesday morning, but there were few reports of significant damage.
Larry Wilson, technician at the Geophysics Department, University of Utah, told The Richfield Reaper the quake was officially measured at 5.0 Richter magnitude.
An earthquake of that intensity "is considered destructive in a populated area," he said.
Mr. Wilson reported that the epicenter of the quake, which occurred a few seconds after 4:20 a.m., had been placed at approximately 19 miles southeast of Richfield.
In Koosharem, which is about 20 miles southeast of Richfield, Mrs. Leland DeLange of the Grass Valley Merc told the Reaper the experience was "shocking," although she had heard of no major damage.
Walls shook, houses were cracked, bottles and cans knocked off shelves in the store, Mrs. DeLange said. In addition to the major quake, five to seven tremors were reported by residents of the Burrville area up to 6 a.m., she noted.
Boulders rolled onto Highway 89, north of Marysvale, requiring state highway men and machinery to keep it open to traffic.
Dozens of phone calls to the Reaper revealed that the quake had been felt over a wide area.
Mr. Wilson explained that the Paunsagunt Fault, considered an "active" fault, runs through Sevier Valley, but it will require additional information and further study to determine if this geologic formation was the source of the earthquake. He said one other quake of similar magnitude has been measured in this area in the past 50 years.
The Paunsagunt Fault extends from Logan to St. George, Mr. Wilson explained.
He hoped residents of this area would send reports of their experiences in the quake to assist in the department's research.
The earthquake, strong enough to awaken most residents at that early hour, caused some damage in Richfield, consisting mainly of cracks in walls, broken jars and bottles and fixtures that were shaken off their mountings.
[Richfield Reaper; October 5, 1967]
An earthquake registering an intensity of 5.0 on the Richter scale at the University of Utah's seismograph rocked south-central Utah early Wednesday.
Larry Wilson, U seismograph technician, Wednesday night reported the epicenter was located three miles north of Marysvale, Piute County, on the Tushar Fault.
Last reported major slip in that fault rocked Glenwood, Sevier County, in 1945.
Wednesday's tremor was followed by a "swarm" of aftershocks, Mr. Wilson said, none of which caused any damage. The epicenter was located on the basis of readings from six locations, he said.
Preliminary reports from the National Earthquake Information Center at Rockville, Md., rated the 4:20 a.m. shock at 5.5 and the University of California at Berkeley rated it at 5.2, according to reports relayed by United Press International.
Largest quake in the area, Mr. Wilson reported, centered in Richfield in 1901 and 35 aftershocks also were felt.
And in 1921 the area recorded three quakes, two with ratings of 6.1 and resulting in a total of $200,000 in damage. The third rated at 5.5. The swarm of aftershocks lasted three months, from Sept. 12 through Dec. 20, Mr. Wilson said.
Some walls were cracked in Wednesday's tremor and a minor rock slide in Marysvale Canyon was cleared quickly by road crews, the Utah Highway Patrol reported.
[Salt Lake Tribune; October 5, 1967]
Return to Marysvale Earthquake Summary.
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