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Slight Damage Done By Rocking Of Earth Yesterday Morning
Two distinct earthquake shocks were felt in Ogden yesterday morning, the first at 10:15 o'clock and the second just three minutes later. While both were light shocks, considerable damage was done to property through the breaking of plaster walls, the overturning of loosely built chimneys and the general shaking up of structural work.
At the Central Junior high school a panic at the assembly was narrowly averted through the efforts of Supt. John M. Mills and teachers. The superintendent was giving a short talk at the school at the time of the shock and as the building trembled there was a spread of fear among the students. Coolly and calmly, Superintendent Mills called for order and urged the students to keep their seats. Those who had been most affected by the shock were allowed to leave the building for a few minutes in order that they might compose themselves.
At other schools there was much the same situation excepting that the student body was divided into classes at the time of the shocks and that, while damage was done to several of the buildings the teachers were easily able to control the students. In several instances classes were marched out of the buildings during the quake.
A number of reports of damage were given after the shock, although the principal losses were cracked window panes, breaking of plaster and the overturning of chimneys.
[Ogden Examiner; May 14, 1914]
Does No Material Damage, But Awakens Many And Has Effect On Nerves
The great Wasatch fault plane was in a playful mood yesterday morning, and the result was two earthquake shocks. Temblor No. 1 made its appearance from beneath the Wasatch range at exactly 10:15 o'clock and the sympathetic temblor which sometimes follows the hard jolt started at 10:18. The first shock was of one minute and twenty seconds' duration and the time of the sympathetic shock could not be exactly figured, as it rolled around under old mother earth for several minutes at different intervals. It was from 10:15 to 10:16 o'clock yesterday morning that Salt Lake's population broke away from the confines of spring fever's lethargy and made hurried exits from buildings or roundly denounced some one for dropping a safe on the third floor and jarring the building.
Prof. F. J. Pack of the University of Utah found that two distinct shocks occurred. The seismograph at the university recorded the duration of the first temblor and also the severity. It was announced that the earthquake of yesterday was more severe than that of May 22, 1910, which has held the record for a number of years. The general direction was from east to west and Prof. Pack said that the south and southwest part of Salt Lake received the severest part of the temblor, while the east bench escaped. The north side of Salt Lake also received a hard jar.
In the schools some of the children felt the shock and others did not. In the south part of Salt Lake dishes were broken by being thrown from moldings to the floor.
There were many who did not know that an earthquake had passed and shaken the town. The many telephone calls regarding the earthquake caused some peculiar ideas on earthquakes to be unmasked.
"I didn't hear any earthquake," said one woman. "What do they sound like?"
In the county clerk's office the girls in the east room ran out of the room, thinking the corner of the building was tumbling down. Persons in nearly all of the offices felt their chairs shake and tables rock.
A freak feature of the 'quake was that while persons standing on one side of the counter in the clerk's office felt the shaking, others directly opposite on the other side of the counter felt nothing. Persons standing in the hallways felt nothing.
[Salt Lake Herald-Republican; May 14, 1914]
Entire Valley From Riverton To Collinston Is Shaken By Earthquake
Damage Is Not Serious
Some Chimneys Are Thrown Down And Walls Cracked In Houses At Ogden
Two earthquake shocks, three minutes apart, gave many residents of the city a severe fright yesterday morning. The first tremor was felt at 10:15 and lasted about forty-five seconds, and the second, a milder shock, at 10:18. The tremors were felt in several localities from Riverton on the south to Collinston on the north. So far no traces of serious damage have been reported.
The shocks were felt very distinctly on the north bench, in the Walker bank building, the federal building and on the upper floors of practically all of the down-town business blocks. The thermograph, a device in the kiosk in front of the post office which records with an ink line the temperatures of the day, also noted the tremors by jumping wildly about and temporarily disregarding its temperature work.
The shock is most unusual and is one peculiar to the Wasatch fault plane, which extends along the west face of the Wasatch mountains throughout Utah. The peculiarity of the record of the seismograph pendulum is the fact that it is made entirely on one side of the medial line, thus indicating that the tremors came fast and close behind one another, so that the pendulum was unable to swing back to its normal position before another tremor threw it in the opposite direction.
The point of movement on the Wasatch plane is, I judge, in the proximity of Fort Douglas. The fact that tremors were felt with greatest intensity to the south, north and west would indicate this.
Only three such records as the one produced by the shock yesterday have been obtained by scientists. All three records have been furnished by the Utah instrument, the two others appearing in June, 1907, and on April 7 of this month. These disturbances do not forebode any coming disaster, as many persons evidently fear.
FARMINGTON, May 13--Davis county was shaken from one end to the other at 10:15 a.m. today by a series of earth tremors lasting close to half a minute. The severest quaking was felt in the south end of the county, Farmington and Bountiful reporting that occupants of two-story buildings were frightened by the rattling of dishes and the moving of furniture. No damage was done.
[Salt Lake Tribune; May 14, 1914]
Return to Ogden Earthquake Summary.
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