CRUSTAL MOVEMENTS 193 



about 13 feet northward (Fig. 190). During this earthquake over 

 7,000 people were killed, 17,000 injured, and some 20,000 buildings 

 were destroyed. 



On the evening of August 31, 1886, the city of Charleston, South 

 Carolina, was disturbed by an earthquake which was felt over much 

 of the eastern part of the United States. Strange noises and slight 

 tremblings of the earth had been noted for several days previous to 

 the destructive quaking, but they excited no great alarm. About 

 ten o'clock in the evening of the fateful day a low rumbling sound 

 was heard, which rapidly deepened into an awful roar. The slight 

 trembling of the ground increased until it became destructively 

 violent. The motion then subsided slightly, but increased again, 

 and then died away. The violent disturbance lasted 70 seconds. 

 A second shock, almost as severe as the first, occurred eight min- 

 utes later. Six or seven other less severe shocks were felt before 

 morning, and slight tremors were felt at intervals until the following 

 April. During the shocks, buildings swayed, chimneys were thrown 

 down, walls were cracked, houses moved .from their foundations, 

 railroad tracks displaced and the rails bent, and trees disturbed in 

 the ground. Numerous fissures were formed in the earth, and from 

 some of them streams of water, mud, and sand were forced out. 

 Hardly a large building in the city but was damaged, and 27 per- 

 sons were killed, chiefly by falling masonry. The people fled in 

 terror from their homes, and for several days and nights a large 

 part of the population camped in the public parks. 



Outside the vicinity of Charleston the earthquake was 

 less violent, but the quaking was felt over an area of between 

 2,000,000 and 3,000,000 square miles. It was felt earliest near 

 Charleston, and later at increasing distances from the city. There 

 were two centers of disturbance (Fig. 191), and the earthquake 

 spread like a wave from them at the rate of about 150 miles per 

 minute. 



In 1819 a part of the delta of the Indus River experienced a 

 series of shocks lasting four days. During the earthquake an 

 area some 2,000 square miles in extent sank so as to be covered by 

 the sea, while a neighboring belt, 50 miles long and 16 miles wide, 

 rose about 10 feet. The earthquake of Kangra, in the same country, 



