Earthquakes in the Lowcountry can be major aftershocks more than a century old

GREENVILLE, S.C. (FOX Carolina) – South Carolina is no stranger to earthquakes. In fact, the most famous earthquake on the East Coast was more than a century ago in the Charleston area.

If you take a historic tour of downtown Charleston, the guide will likely point out earthquake stabilizers in homes and businesses throughout the historic district. These bars are a reference to the great earthquake that destroyed many of Charleston's buildings and toppled others.

While there haven't been any devastating earthquakes in the past century…there are many small earthquakes in the Lowcountry month after month. It is possible that some of today's tremors are aftershocks of that major tremor.

“When the 1886 earthquake happened, we had a lot of aftershocks at once. People feel them, they notice them, they write them down. “So we have a written record of, you know, ‘We felt the shocks at this hour of the day on this day,’” explains Steve Jaume, professor Associate at the College of Charleston, who studies and studies earthquakes. These aftershocks in the days following a major earthquake are not surprising.

“Some percentage of them, and it's hard to find an exact number, fit the idea that there are still aftershocks from these big earthquakes in the past,” Jaume says of the ongoing tremors in the Lowcountry. But 138 years after the historic earthquake, most of us find this difficult to believe.

“It's just a difficult problem to solve,” but Jaume says it is possible. “It's something we're interested in, right, how many of today's earthquakes represent some sort of residual effect of a previous earthquake.”

The area of ​​North Charleston near Summerville around the Dorchester Road area is likely where the 1886 earthquake originated. The fault line is located about a half mile deep into the earth. Throughout South Carolina, we have many fault lines, but this particular seismic zone is responsible for about 70% of earthquakes in South Carolina. The 1886 earthquake, the most famous earthquake in South Carolina, has an estimated magnitude of 6.9 to 7.3, making it the strongest earthquake recorded on the East Coast since 1886. It is estimated that there were more than 1,000 earthquakes in the same area and some of them were, perhaps, aftershocks .

“Small earthquakes now. Are they because of the fault that moved or are they just this cloud around it with other small faults disturbed by the only thing that moved in 1886? That's the big question,” says Gaume.

“There is more than one bug moving around. We know that for sure,” Jaume says.

Let's go back to earth science class. There are two faults in this area of ​​the Lowcountry. The first is a strike-slip fault, the same as the famous San Andreas fault in California. The borders slide past each other in opposite directions. The other type is a subduction zone where one side of the boundary moves beneath the other.

How do seismologists know aftershocks?

“They are aftershocks because a larger earthquake is a disturbance in the Earth's crust that has to get out of the system,” Jaume explains.

Seismologists know that there will eventually be another major earthquake in the Summerville area, but it will likely happen in another 400 to 600 years, long after our lifetimes. However, with the Lowcountry's widespread growth, even a moderate magnitude 5 or 6 earthquake can do some impressive damage.

“If one of these events happened tomorrow under Somerville's leadership, it would be a very significant matter. It would be much less significant than a repeat of what happened in 1886, but it would still cause a lot of damage that would catch people off guard,” Gaume predicted. “Part of our problem with Charleston is that we have all the old buildings, and many of them are already broken down.”

Some of the buildings that survive from 1886 are held together by bars, and can be seen on buildings throughout the historic district.

“The chances of no damage happening are low, but you can reduce the damage with some of these retrofits, which we call seismic lightning strikes,” Jaume explains.

Right now, we're bracing for the next moderate earthquake, perhaps still an aftershock from 1886, and hoping seismologists can solve their puzzle.

“What we're trying to do is use evidence that has been recorded since 1886 to tell us what happened,” Gaume says.

Copyright 2024 WHNS. All rights reserved.

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