Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Site Tools

  • AAAS
  • Subscribe
  • Feedback

Site Search

Search Advanced

Science 26 July 1985:
Vol. 229. no. 4711, pp. 379 - 381
DOI: 10.1126/science.229.4711.379
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Articles

Paleoseismic Evidence for Recurrence of Earthquakes near Charleston, South Carolina

PRADEEP TALWANI 1 and JOHN COX 1

1 Department of Geology, University of South Carolina, Columbia 29208

A destructive earthquake that occurred in 1886 near Charleston, South Carolina, was associated with widespread liquefaction of shallow sand structures and their extravasation to the surface. Several seismically induced paleoliquefaction structures preserved within the shallow sediments in the meizoseismal area of the 1886 event were identified. Field evidence and radiocarbon dates suggest that at least two earthquakes of magnitudes greater than 6.2 preceded the 1886 event in the past 3000 to 3700 years. The evidence yielded an initial estimate of about 1500 to 1800 years for the maximum recurrence of destructive, intraplate earthquakes in the Charleston region.

Submitted on January 30, 1985
Accepted on May 17, 1985


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Stress evolution and seismicity in the central-eastern United States: Insights from geodynamic modeling.
Q. Li, M. Liu, Q. Zhang, and E. Sandvol (2007)
Geological Society of America Special Papers 425, 149-166
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Preliminary Assessment of Sand Blows in the Southern Mississippi Embayment.
(2004)
Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America 94, 1125-1142
Structural and tectonic setting of the Charleston, South Carolina, region: Evidence from the Tertiary stratigraphic record.
R. E. Weems and W. C. Lewis (2002)
Geological Society of America Bulletin 114, 24-42
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Characteristics of Deformation and Past Seismicity Associated with the 1819 Kutch Earthquake, Northwestern India.
(2001)
Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America 91, 407-426
Recurrent liquefaction induced by the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake and 1990 and 1991 aftershocks: Implications for paleoseismicity studies.
J. D. Sims and C. D. Garvin (1995)
Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America 85, 51-65
   Abstract »    PDF »
The Search for Evidence of Large Prehistoric Earthquakes Along the Atlantic Seaboard.
D. Amick, D. AMICK, and R. GELINAS (1991)
Science 251, 655-658
   Abstract »    PDF »
Forecasting Damaging Earthquakes in the Central and Eastern United States.
S. P. Nishenko, S. P. Nishenko, and G. A. Bollinger (1990)
Science 249, 1412-1416
   Abstract »    PDF »
The Loma Prieta, California, Earthquake: An Anticipated Event.
U.S. Geological Survey Staff (1990)
Science 247, 286-293
   Abstract »    PDF »
Dynamics of Liquefaction During the 1987 Superstition Hills, California, Earthquake.
T. L. Holzer, T. L. HOLZER, T. C. HANKS, and T. L. YOUD (1989)
Science 244, 56-59
   Abstract »    PDF »
Lithospheric stress, deformation, and tectonic cycles: the disruption of Pangaea and the closure of Tethys.
J. F. Dewey (1988)
Geological Society, London, Special Publications 37, 23-40
   Abstract »    PDF »


To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)