Did you feel that? Edgecombe's earthquake

By Brian Lampkin

On Aug. 6, 1945 the earth shook, and the world has never been quite the same. Of course Hiroshima was a man-made disaster and no natural disaster has matched the devastation created that day, but forty-nine years later on Aug. 6, 1994 Tarboro shook. A little. A 3.6 magnitude earthquake centered in Pamlico County was felt throughout Edgecombe County, but many people were quite unaware of its happening or passed off the small tremor as the rumble of the train going by.

“It was a dish rattler,” is how Dr. Kenneth Taylor of the North Carolina Geological Survey describes the quake. And broken antiques are about as much tragedy as we can expect from an earthquake here in Edgecombe County. The Coastal Plain is one of the least likely places in the United States for a major quake. In fact it is in the 99th percentile for “places least likely for a major quake.” Now there’s a reason to move to Tarboro--quick tell all your trembling friends in Alaska and California. Plus we have no Schwarzeneggers or Palins!

Not that we are entirely off the hook. Dr. Taylor points us to the serious 1886 quake centered in Charlestown, South Carolina and felt through much of the southeast coast. It was a 7.3 quake and killed 65 people. Toppled chimneys and cracked walls were reported as far away as Raleigh.

It turns out not even Tarboro has someone old enough to remember that incident, but geologist Loretta Lautzenheiser of Coastal Carolina Research says that two towns in Hyde County dropped out of sight that day. “They fell into the earth and had to be abandoned,” Lautzenheiser says. Furthermore, the event shook enough people in town that architectural safety features were added at Calvary Episcopal (the rod and bolt system is still visible in the nave). Dr. Taylor’s favorite architectural response to the Charlestown quake is the lovely “earthquake stars” visible in the walls of the Cotton Exchange in downtown Wilmington.

But we have friends and loved ones all across the state, and as you head west the risk of a moderate to major quake rises. By the time you get to Asheville (was that a Glen Campbell song?), the history of and damage from earthquakes is notable. The highest known earthquake risk in the United States outside of California is the New Madrid Seismic Zone; an 1811 quake centered in New Madrid, Missouri is estimated to have been as large as 8.3. Intensity level VI (another measure of earthquake severity used by geologists. Level VI markers include “people have trouble walking” and “trees and bushes shake”) effects were felt in Western North Carolina, but damage was slight due to very low population at the time.

On Feb. 21, 1916, a 5.5 quake in the Southern Appalachian Seismic Zone near Asheville caused damage, but no deaths were reported. “Earthquakes in the Southern Appalachian Seismic Zone are our number one concern in the state,” Dr. Taylor says. Many small quakes occur every year in this region, but no one can be certain of its potential for a major destructive quake.

Which is a problem in the earthquake prediction business – they’re unpredictable. The January 12th quake in Port-au-Prince, Haiti was not a surprise exactly, but most earthquake experts felt a major quake was much more likely in the Dominican Republic 100 miles north of where this one hit. The New York Times pointed out this week that the fault line running across the top of the Dominican Republic has not had a major break in over 800 years. It’s due. It had only been 250 years since a major quake hit along the Port-au-Prince fault line.

Still, we can feel relatively calm about our earthquake future, which is a comfort as tornado season approaches (Edgecombe County is 1.4 times above the U.S. average for tornados). But we can take no comfort in the decimation of other places. The American response to Haiti has been tremendous and heartfelt, and this paper has noted the connection survivors of the 1999 flood feel toward the victims of the earthquake in Haiti.

Natural disasters are not more likely to hit in poor or underdeveloped places, but they are more likely to cause much more harm in these places and many man or woman-made decisions exacerbate the effects of natural disasters (which is not to echo the ranting of a sick man who argued that Haiti’s so-called anti-Christian past was responsible for their suffering. Was some failing in Eastern Carolina’s religious practice responsible for Hurricane Floyd?). Substandard housing, a weak and ineffective government and an environmental policy that long ago denuded the land all contributed to the effects of the earthquake.

I don’t know the best way to help in Haiti, but I know I don’t want to send money indiscriminately. I offer Doctors Without Borders and Partners in Health as two organizations I feel confident in.

America is attached to Haiti in many ways and historically not always for the best. On Aug. 6, 1934, 60 years before our insignificant earthquake, U.S. troops left Haiti after occupying it for 19 years, and now U.S. troops are back. Can Port-au-Prince be brought back to life or will it disappear like two forgotten earthquake-damaged towns in Hyde County, N.C.?



The Nature of Tarboro by Brian Lampkin is a monthly column about wildlife and environmental issues specific to Tarboro and Edgecombe County.

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