THE 



JOURNAL OF GEOLOGY 



NOVEMBER-DECEMBER, 1902 



A NATURAL GAS EXPLOSION NEAR WALDRON, IND. 



Introduction. — On the eleventh day of August, 1890, a natural 

 gas explosion of much violence occurred near Waldron, in Shelby 

 county, Indiana. The ground was disturbed, and fractures, crevi- 

 ces, and craters were formed over an area of several acres. 



Many newspaper accounts of the explosion were published. 

 In most cases these were greatly exaggerated. Bare mention 

 of the occurrence was made by E. T. J. Jordan, natural gas 

 supervisor of Indiana, in his report to the state geologist, in 

 1891. 1 



In discussing a violent natural gas explosion that occurred 

 at Coffeyville, Kan., on July 26, 1894, Haworth refers to a 

 similar explosion that had occurred in Indiana, giving the local- 

 ity as Kokomo ; he says : 



One similar occurrence is known in the gas field of Indiana, near 

 Kokomo, in which a fissure was formed in the solid limestone from which 

 natural gas escaped with explosive violence and caught fire from a burning 

 log heap near by. 2 



Haworth refers here to the Shelby county explosion, which 

 did not occur near Kokomo, however, but took place about one 

 hundred miles south and slightly east of that city. Neither was 

 a visible crevice formed in solid limestone, as the explosion 

 occurred in an area that was covered with soil and gravel, though 



1 Indiana Department of Geology and Natural Resotirces, Seventeenth Annual 

 Report, p. 338. Indianapolis, 1892. 



2 Kansas University Quarte?-!y, Vol. IV, p. 95. (Mr. Haworth's information con- 

 cerning the Indiana explosion was obtained from Mr. William Moore, of Kokomo.) 

 Vol. X, No. 8. 803 



