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 8 February 1991:
Vol. 251. no. 4994, pp. 655 - 658
DOI: 10.1126/science.251.4994.655
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Articles

The Search for Evidence of Large Prehistoric Earthquakes Along the Atlantic Seaboard

DAVID AMICK 1 and ROBERT GELINAS 1

1 Ebasco Services Incorporated, 2211 West Meadowview Road, Greensboro, NC 27407

The spacial distribution of seismically induced liquefaction features discovered along the Atlantic seaboard suggest that during the last 2000 to 5000 years, large earthquakes (body wave magnitude, mb ge 5.8 ± 0.4) in this region may have been restricted exclusively to South Carolina. Paleoliquefaction evidence for six large prehistoric earthquakes was discovered there. At least five of these past events originated in the Charleston, South Carolina, area, the locale of a magnitude 7+ event in 1886. During the past two millennia, large events may have occurred about every 500 to 600 years.

Submitted on August 30, 1990
Accepted on November 16, 1990


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Ground Motion and Liquefaction Simulation of the 1886 Charleston, South Carolina, Earthquake.
(2003)
Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America 93, 2717-2736
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
Evidence for a buried fault system in the Coastal Plain of the Carolinas and Virginia--Implications for neotectonics in the southeastern United States.
R. T. Marple and P. Talwani (2000)
Geological Society of America Bulletin 112, 200-220
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
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 »
Rapid Intraplate Strain Accumulation in the New Madrid Seismic Zone.
L. Liu, L. Liu, M. D. Zoback, and P. Segall (1992)
Science 257, 1666-1669
   Abstract »    PDF »


To Advertise     Find Products

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