1872 — March 26, Lone Pine Earthquake, Owens Valley, Central California –27-30

–~60  Smith, Roger. Catastrophes and Disasters. 1992, p. 44.[1]

—  30  Appleton’s Annual Cyclopedia…Register of…Events…1872 (V. XII). “Earthquakes,” 266.

—  30  Boston Post. “The Earthquake.” 4-1-1872, p. 2.

—  30  History.com. This Day in History, Disaster, March 26, 1872. Deadly Earthquake Hits CA.

—  30  USGS. Historic Earthquakes: Owens Valley, California, 1872 03 26 10:30 UTC.

—  27  USGS. Deaths in the United States from Earthquakes.  2008 update.

—  23  Lone Pine. Evening News, Indianapolis, IN. “Latest By Telegraph.” 3-30-1872, p. 1.

 

Narrative Information

 

Appleton’s: “California and Nevada suffered seriously from an earthquake, March 26th. The region most strongly affected was the eastern and western slopes of the Sierra Nevada, and the Sacramento, San Joaquin, and Tulare Valleys, the movement extending into Mexico. The time of the first shock noted at Visalia, Independence, and Jackson, was 2.10 A. M.. and at White Pine, Nev., 2.45. The disturbance lasted about thirty hours, and fully 1,000 distinct shocks were felt. The direction of the vibrations was generally northwest and southwest.  Owens’s River Valley was the most afflicted.  At the village of Lone Pine…south of Independence, some fifty adobe houses were shaken to pieces, and 27 persons killed and 34 much injured; frame houses did not fall. At Independence, many buildings were prostrated, and some lives lost.[2] A loud rumbling sound, described as being ”like a train of cars, or like distant artillery,” preceded and accompanied the shocks.  Fissures, miles in length, and 50 to 200 feet wide, were reported opened along the eastern base of the Sierra Nevada, near Big Pine Camp. At other places, the ground was heaped up in great ridges, large springs stopped running, and new springs burst forth.  Heavy snow-slides occurred on the Sierras, and great rocks rolled down the mountain-sides, blocking up the stage road….

 

“At Tibbet’s Ranch, 15 miles above Independence, 40 acres of ground sank about seven feet below the surface of the surrounding country. Big Owen’s Lake has risen four feet since the first shock. Owen’s River ran over its bank, depositing shoals of fish on shore; afterward it receded. For a distance of three or four miles through Lone Pine the earth is cracked. One side remained stationary, while the other sank seven or eight feet, leaving a wall of earth, extending over three miles in length, where formerly was a level plain. Innumerable cracks were made throughout the valley. Kern and Owen’s Rivers turned and ran up-stream for several minutes, leaving their beds dry; finally, they returned with largely-increased volumes of water….”  (Appleton’s Annual Cyclopedia…Register of…Events…1872 (V. XII). “Earthquakes,” 266-267.)

 

History.com: “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.”

 

(History.com. This Day in History, “March 26, 1872. Deadly Earthquake Hits California.”)

 

Hough and Hutton: “The 26 March 1872 Owens Valley earthquake is among the largest historical earthquakes in California. The felt area and maximum fault displacements have long been regarded as comparable to, if not greater than, those of the great San Andreas fault earthquakes of 1857 and 1906, but mapped surface ruptures of the latter two events were 2–3 times longer than that inferred for the 1872 rupture. The preferred magnitude estimate of the Owens Valley earthquake has thus been 7.4, based largely on the geological evidence. Reinterpreting macroseismic accounts of the Owens Valley earthquake, we infer generally lower intensity values than those estimated in earlier studies. Nonetheless, as recognized in the early twentieth century, the effects of this earthquake were still generally more dramatic at regional distances than the macroseismic effects from the 1906 earthquake, with light damage to masonry buildings at (nearest-fault) distances as large as 400 km. Macroseismic observations thus suggest a magnitude greater than that of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, which appears to be at odds with geological observations. However, while the mapped rupture length of the Owens Valley earthquake is relatively low, the average slip was high. The surface rupture was also complex and extended over multiple fault segments. It was first mapped in detail over a century after the earthquake occurred, and recent evidence suggests it might have been longer than earlier studies indicated. Our preferred magnitude estimate is M_w 7.8–7.9, values that we show are consistent with the geological observations. The results of our study suggest that either the Owens Valley earthquake was larger than the 1906 San Francisco earthquake or that, by virtue of source properties and/or propagation effects, it produced systematically higher ground motions at regional distances. The latter possibility implies that some large earthquakes in California will generate significantly larger ground motions than San Andreas fault events of comparable magnitude.” (Hough and Hutton. “Revisiting the 1872 Owens Valley, California Earthquake.” Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, Vol. 98, no. 2, 2008, pp. 931-949.)

 

USGS: “The most devastating effects of this earthquake occurred at Lone Pine, where 52 of 59 houses (mostly constructed of adobe or stone) were destroyed and 27 people were killed. A few[3] fatalities also were reported in other parts of Owens Valley. One report states that the main buildings were thrown down in almost every town in Inyo County. About 100 kilometers south of Lone Pine, at Indian Wells, adobe houses sustained cracks. Property loss has been estimated at $250,000.

 

“Faulting occurred on the Owens Valley fault along a line of a few kilometers east of the Sierra Nevada escarpment. The faulting near Lone Pine involved both dip-slip and right-lateral components of movement. The largest amount of surface deformation was observed between the towns of Lone Pine and Independence, but fault scarps formed along a length of at least 160 kilometers – from Haiwee Reservoir, south of Olancha, to Big Pine; cracks formed in the ground as far north as Bishop. The largest horizontal displacement of 7 meters was measured on the fault scarps west of Lone Pine. The vertical offsets clearly were smaller, averaging about 1 meter with the downthrown block on the east.

 

“A comparison of this earthquake to the earthquakes of 1857 and 1906 on the San Andreas fault shows the felt area and maximum fault displacements to be comparable. However, the shocks on the San Andreas fault ruptured the fault for significantly larger distances – 300 kilometers in 1857 and 430 kilometers in 1906.

 

“This earthquake stopped clocks and awakened people at San Diego to the south, Red Bluff to the north, and Elko, Nevada, to the east. MM intensity VIII or larger was observed over an area of about 25,000 square kilometers, and MM intensity IX or larger was observed over and area of about 5,500 square kilometers. The shock was felt over most of California and much or Nevada. Thousands of aftershocks occurred, some severe.” (USGS. Historic Earthquakes: Owens Valley, California, 1872 03 26 10:30 UTC.)

 

Newspapers

 

March 26: “San Francisco, March 26.–A shock of earthquake was felt throughout the State at 2:20 A.M. today. It was felt less in San Francisco than at Sacramento. No damage was done here. The central force of the earthquake appears to have been in the Sierra Nevada east of Visalia.[4] At Visalia the shocks were sufficiently strong to throw goods from the shelves in stores and to crack the walls of some buildings, the vibrations here lasted twenty seconds, but were not felt by more than one-tenth of the population.

 

“Parties at the foot of the hills twenty-four miles east of Visalia report a crash as of mountains rent asunder. The earthquake evidently proceeded from that point, and radiated with decreased force throughout the entire length of the State, but was strongest along the base of the Sierras. Some slight damage was done at Visalia, but none is reported elsewhere.” (New York Times. “Earthquake in California.” 3-27-1872, p. 1.)

 

March 30: “A California dispatch says that advices coming in from the volcanic country north of the Mojave river show that the earthquake on Tuesday was felt with terrific force there. At Lone Pine twenty-three people were killed and thirty wounded. Fifty houses were demolished and the town is in ruins.” (Evening News, Indianapolis IN. “Latest By Telegraph.” 3-30-1872, 1.)

 

March 31: “San Francisco, March 31.–Despatches have been received from the volcanic district in Inyo county, four hundred miles south of the earthquake disaster on Tuesday. Shocks still continue, though with decreased violence. It is remarkable that only a slight shock was felt in central and northern California. Cerro Gordo was badly damaged, having several buildings thrown down and one man killed. Lone Pine appears to have been directly over the centre of the disturbance. Among the killed at the latter place was Mr. Grey, aged 42, a native of Texas. The remainder were all Spanish Americans.

 

“The first shock is described as resembling a park of artillery fired directly beneath the town, Col. Whipple, who was in the second story of the Adalee House, states that he was just in time to jump from bed and get to the doorway when the house appeared to crumble to pieces beneath him. He was buried among the ruins, but succeeded in extricating himself from the debris, having received several severe but not dangerous wounds.

 

“The scene beggared description; nearly the whole populace was buried beneath the ruins. Cries for help and screams of pain from the wounded beneath the ruins filled the air, while those who escaped were calling for aid to rescue fathers and mothers, wives and children.

 

“Thfe first shock was followed in quick succession by three others. Over 300 distinct shocks were felt between half past 2 and sunrise. In fact the earth was in a constant tremble over three hours. A chasm was opened extending thirty-five miles down the valley, ranging from three inches to forty feet in width. Rocks were torn from their places and rolled down into the valley.

 

“At Swansea, Col. Fregalios, of the smelting works, was killed, and great desolation prevails among the inhabitants of Lone Pine. A dispatch to-day, from Visalia, says that several shocks were felt in that city last night, and were still coming from the southeast. Persons anticipate finding immense chasms in the mountains east of us as soon as the snow disappears enough to permit an investigation. There are rumors of a volcano in active operation, seen from the summit of Green Hood Mountain, sixty miles south of Visalia. The rumor is considered at least dubious. The Indians in that vicinity have all left, fearing a recurrence of the general convulsion of nature, which, according to tradition, occurred in that region some hundreds of years ago, and created what is known as Owens River valley, but which was before a chain of mountains. The section affected by the earthquake was sparsely inhabited, mainly be people engaged in working silver-bearing lead mines.

 

“Additional advices from Inyo county place the number of killed by the earthquake on Tuesday, at thirty, besides one hundred wounded. In the desert country, stretching from Owens Lake to the Mexican line, are innumerable craters not long extinct, besides several mud volcanoes…The schocks continued, decreasing in force, up to Thursday morning, when over a thousand had been counted, and at Tibbett’s Ranche, fifteen miles above Independence, forty acres of ground sank seven feet below the surface of the surrounding country. Big Owens lake has risen four feet since the first shocks, and Owens river ran over its bank, depositing shoals of fish on the shore. Afterwards it receded. For three or four miles through Lone Pine the earth cracked and one side remained stationary, while the other sank seven or eight feet, leaving a wall of earth extending over three miles in length where formerly there was a level plain. Innumerable cracks were made throughout the valley. Keen and Owens rivers turned and ran up stream several minutes, leaving their beds dry, and finally returned with largely increased volume. There has been no parallel to this earthquake since 1812, when the missions of San Juan Capistrano and La Purissima, in Southern California, were destroyed. The earthquake is a matter of common conversation throughout California, but creates no apprehension outside of the district affected.” (Boston Post. “The Earthquake.” 4-1-1872, p. 2.)

 

Sources

 

Appleton’s Annual Cyclopedia and Register of Important Events of the Year 1872 (Vol. XII).  NY: D. Appleton and Co., 1873. Accessed 8-28-2019 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=FKQoAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

 

Boston Post. “The Earthquake.” 4-1-1872, p. 2. Accessed 8-28-2019 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/boston-post-apr-01-1872-p-2/

 

Evening News, Indianapolis, IN. “Latest By Telegraph.” 3-30-1872, p. 1. Accessed 8-28-2019 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/indianapolis-news-mar-30-1872-p-1/

 

History.com. This Day in History, Disaster, March 26, 1872. “Deadly Earthquake Hits California.”  Accessed 12/06/2008 at:  http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?action=tdihArticleCategory&displayDate=03/26&categoryId=disaster

 

Hough, Susan E. and Kate Hutton. “Revisiting the 1872 Owens Valley, California Earthquake.” Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, Vol. 98, no. 2, 2008, pp. 931-949. Abstract accessed 8-28-2019 at: https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/ssa/bssa/article-abstract/98/2/931/350151/revisiting-the-1872-owens-valley-california?redirectedFrom=fulltext

 

National Centers for Environmental Information, NOAA. Significant Earthquake Database, Accessed 8-28-2019 at: https://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/nndc/struts/form?t=101650&s=1&d=1

 

New York Times. “Earthquake in California.” 3-27-1872, p. 1. Accessed 8-28-2019 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/new-york-times-mar-27-1872-p-1/

 

Smith, Roger. Catastrophes and Disasters. Edinburgh and New York: W & R Chambers, 1992.

 

United States Geological Survey. Deaths in the United States from Earthquakes (Website). July 16, 2008 update. Accessed at: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/regional/states/us_deaths.php

 

United States Geological Survey. Historic Earthquakes: Owens Valley, California, 1872 03 26 10:30 UTC, Magnitude 7.4. October 21, 2009 modification. Accessed at:  http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/states/events/1872_03_26.php

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[1] “There were substantial landscape changes, with new ravines appearing and other ground uplifted, but the area was lightly populated at the time, so only about 60 people died.” Not using as estimated toll in that this figure is twice that of other sources and provides no source citation.

[2] For fatality estimating purposes “some lives lost” will here be counted as three.

[3] We translate “a few” to “3” for counting purposes.

[4] Visalia is on the western side of the Sierra Nevada mountains in the San Joaquin Valley. Lone Pine is on the other side (eastern) of the mountains.