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Jittery Area Starts Damage Cleanup
The Salt Lake Valley, shaken and damaged, rolled with a punch delivered Wednesday about 9:05 a.m. by an earthquake centered about a mile west of Magna.
Public and private property owners started to tally the damage cost. The temblor's expense to at least one set of school buildings was placed at less than $1,000.
By Wednesday afternoon, assessment of the quake's effect had revealed structural damage to some homes, superficial damage to many public buildings and dwellings and a widespread case of the jitters.
The shock, occurring just six days after an earthquake rumbled out of the Cache Valley area, knocked bricks from chimneys, cracked walls, broke glass, dumped merchandise from store shelves and sent some interior structures crashing to the ground.
Two area high schools closed Wednesday will reopen Thursday.
A woman injured during the quake was reported "progressing comfortably" at St. Marks Hospital.
Mrs. Vern (Verda) Oliver, 56, 2888 S. 9150 W., Magna, suffered a severe hip injury when she slipped trying to reach the street as her place of business shook violently.
Manager of the Coronet Store, 9071 W. 2700 South, Mrs. Oliver said she was trying to gain the street when she slipped on a broken lotion bottle that had fallen on the floor. She was treated at St. Mark's Hospital in Salt Lake City.
Cyprus and Granger High schools, noticeably damaged during the Wednesday morning jolt, excused classes for the rest of the day.
Both, following a close structural examination, will resume classes at the regular time Thursday.
Jackson Elementary School in the Salt Lake District excused pupils and delayed resumption of classes until 1 p.m. Wednesday until a full building inspection could be completed.
Authorities said the building is one of the district's oldest and it was considered necessary to check it thoroughly for structural damage before children were allowed back in classrooms.
Dr. O. C. England, deputy superintendent in charge of Granite School District building and grounds, said loss from damage to district schools will not be much more than $1,000.
He said there was no structural damage.
Granger, Cyprus and Brockbank Junior High, Dr. England confirmed, were hardest hit.
The parapet around the top of Cyprus High, Dr. England said, was jarred enough to require removal. Superficial plaster cracks also were found at Cyprus.
At Granger High, about 100 feet of one-row acoustical tile in the second-floor hallway was jarred loose. It will be replaced, Mr. England said.
Engineers found cracks in classrooms along the east wall at Granger High, but said they were old ones.
Most Granite District schools evacuated buildings by the orderly fire drill method.
Salt Lake and Jordan School districts reported quake evacuations, but Murray and Davis County districts reported little or no effects of the temblor.
Salt Lake District itemized damage to at least 14
schools, none of it great.
E. F. Smith, district department of building and grounds superintendent, reported Salt Lake school damage as:
South High School--Very little damage except for a few cracks around the exterior main entrance.
West High School--Some plaster cracks in the technical building.
Jordan Junior High--Some cracks in the gym area.
Bonneville Elementary--A crack in exterior brick work on the Southeast corner.
Dilworth Elementary--Plaster down and a crack in the main office.
Hamilton Elementary--Loose acoustical tile.
McKinley Elementary--Clock knocked from wall.
Onequa Elementary--Cracks in pipe tunnel below building.
Washington Elementary--Plaster cracks in four classrooms.
Webster Elementary--One interior wall crack.
Grant, Jackson, Jefferson and Columbus Elementary--Old interior wall cracks reopened.
East and Highland High schools--The oldest and the newest high schools in the district, little or no damage.
Some schools in the Jordan District--Jordan High, West Jordan Junior High and South Jordan Elementary of those reporting--evacuated as the quake thundered.
A three-man team of Marion Penrod, maintenance director; Alma Dowding, assistant maintenance director, and Kenneth B. Dunn, director of new construction, inspected district buildings following the tremor.
Damage was reported "almost negligible."
Numerous close calls were reported by Salt Lake residents caught during the shake.
Salt Lake City police reported a downtown woman worker was given oxygen for a mild heart seizure immediately after the shock.
Mrs. Ruth Kelsey, 57, 621 S. West Temple, was aided by a police department resuscitator when she suffered a mild seizure in the Tracy-Collins Bank Bldg. basement, 151 S. Main.
A housewife, Mrs. Karl (Minna) Wesemann, 47, 430 E. 7th South, was struck on the head by plaster falling from her living room ceiling.
Mrs. Wesemann said she was in her kitchen when the morning tremor hit. Walking into the living room, Mrs. Wesemann told police, she was hit on the head by a piece of falling plaster.
An outside front wall at the Wesemann residence was cracked from ground to roof gable top and inside wall blocks, police said, fell crashing through the plaster ceiling onto a desk.
Cracks, fallen chimneys, broken and loosened glass were reported from many Salt Lake residences and business establishments. State, city-county and federal buildings also suffered wall and doorway cracks.
"I was in the bedroom and the children were tumbling on the bed when the tremor began," said Mrs. Oral Martineau, 24, 271 W. 5th North.
Mrs. Martineau said she barely snatched up her son, Raymond, 6, and daughter, Kimber Lee, 2, before bedroom ceiling plaster and parts of an inner wall crashed at the foot of the bed.
"It fell just where I'd been standing when I decided to get the children out of the bedroom," Mrs. Martineau said.
Mrs. George (Connie) Miller, 38, 17 N. 5th West, an expectant mother, was seated on the foot of her bed with a son, Larry, when the tremor shattered loose an inside wall, sending blocks and ceiling plaster showering down on the head of the bed.
The old Salt Lake City-County Bldg. registered the Wednesday morning quake with several new interior cracks.
A building inspection disclosed a crack in one third-floor wall that extended the full length of the parks and public properties office.
In the building's south end, a crack was found above the county auditor's office entrance on the second floor and one had developed above Third District Judge Aldon J. Anderson's court room entrance on the third floor.
City Engineer Roy W. McLeese said no serious damage had been done to Salt Lake City streets. Salt Lake County officials reported no word of county road damage following the quake.
Deputy Sec. of State Wendell L. Cottrell reported a "few" hairline cracks along walls in the new State Office Building. None is serious, he said.
The State Capitol itself, he said, suffered no apparent damage.
[Salt Lake Tribune; September 6, 1962]
Scale Rates It 5.1
By William C. Patrick
Tribune Science Editor
The earthquake that gave Salt Lake County a violent shaking Wednesday morning and made itself felt in a number of other Utah counties originated near the northern tip of the Oquirrh Mountains, 18 miles southwest of the center of Salt Lake City.
Dr. S. Theodore Algermissen, associate professor of geophysics, University of Utah, made a preliminary location of the epicenter at a point about one half mile west of Magna.
The calculations were based on records of seismographs at the University of Utah, Carbon College, Price, and Dugway Proving Ground, all operated by the Department of Geophysics.
The first shock wave hit at 9:05 a.m., and for one minute the recording needle of the seismograph was off scale.
The U. scientist estimated the magnitude at 5.1 on the Richter scale, which can be compared with 5.7 recorded in the Cache Valley quake a week ago. This means that the Cache quake was six times stronger at the epicenter than the Salt Lake temblor.
Tremors were noted for 10 minutes. The Cache quake bounced the needle off scale for more than two minutes and the effect of the shock lasted for between 15 and 20 minutes.
The intensity of the Wednesday disturbance as felt by residents of Salt Lake County was much greater for the simple reason they were only up to 20 miles from the epicenter and nearly 100 from that in Cache Valley.
Although the epicenter cannot be placed directly on an observable fault, Dr. Algermissen explained that the focus, or point of slippage, occurred three or four miles below the surface on a diagonal fault having an outcropping several miles from the epicenter, or the surface point from which the magnitude is measured.
Geologists have traced the Basin Range fault along the west face of the Oquirrh Mountains as far north as Bacchus.
Other faults have been defined in several other parts of Salt Lake Valley, some close to the western sector in which the disturbance occurred.
Dr. Kenneth L. Cook, head of the Department of Geophysics, said the Salt Lake quake most likely was related to that in Cache Valley, but he doubted that it properly could be called an aftershock.
"Any quake," he said, "of the magnitude of that in Cache Valley could set up disturbances all along the seismic belt extending through the Intermountain Area from Mexico to Canada, provided stresses along fault lines have been building up.
"The Salt Lake quake probably was triggered by the Cache Valley quake, but we can't use the term 'trigger' in the sense of something that happens immediately. We must think of the triggering period as being a matter of days or weeks."
Noting that the Salt Lake quake had only one sixth the magnitude of that in Cache Valley, Dr. Cook said:
"I hope we are on a downward trend of activity throughout the length of the seismic belt, but, of course, no one can predict when or where an earthquake might occur."
Dr. Cook said that with its three seismographs, the Department of Geophysics hopes to be able to determine the most active faults in the area.
The instrument at Carbon College has been operating only since last April, and the one at Dugway, since May. The Dugway seismograph is one of 125 being installed around the world by the U. S. Department of Defense for the specific purpose of studying the effect of underground nuclear explosions.
He announced that at his request, Stanford Research Institute has sent experts to study the results of the Cache Valley quake.
Recent investigation indicates there is activity along the East Cache fault, although earlier calculations placed the main epicenter near the middle of the valley close to Bear River.
[Salt Lake Tribune; September 6, 1962]
Utilities operating in the Salt Lake Valley reported no damage to facilities or interruption in services.
Inspection tours of electric, natural gas, water and sewer systems were conducted immediately following the shock.
The Union Pacific Railroad reported receiving word of shock waves of diminishing intensity as far north as Clearfield and as far south as Spanish Fork and Tintic.
Signal maintenance and section forces, the railroad reported, examined track and facilities in the area without locating any serious damage. Train traffic was operating normally.
The Utah State Highway Patrol also reported shock wave reactions as far west as Tooele and as far north as Logan.
Logan, where the brunt of last week's Cache Valley quake was taken, reported very little immediate awareness of Salt Lake's Wednesday jolt, which was of less magnitude.
Nerves, it was cited, were set on edge in Logan when news of the Salt Lake County tremor reached the northern Utah community still recovering from its shaking up.
Grocery stores in the Hunter, Granger, Magna area--some faced with a large quake clean-up job--marked the Wednesday jolt's shock wave.
The quake caused the most extensive amount of damage in the Granger, Hunter, and Magna areas of Salt Lake County and the northwest section of Salt Lake City.
[Salt Lake Tribune; September 6, 1962]
By Dr. Robert R. Kadesch
University of Utah
The lore of earthquakes is as rich and extensive today as it has been in the past. The present week, with apparent increased activity both in the Intermountain Area and in the world at large, seems to prove the point.
Centuries ago earthquakes were commonly thought to result from underground explosions. Later came the view that earthquakes were closely associated with volcanoes.
Volcanoes were visualized as a type of safety valve to vent internal pressures building up within the earth. So long as the volcanoes were active, pressures were held to a safe level.
When volcanic activity ceased, so it was believed, earthquakes were bound to ensue to relieve the pressure build-up.
Still another theory from the past held that mountains were largely hollow.
Earthquakes were supposed to be caused by the internal collapse of rock inside the hidden mountain chambers.
Now, of course, we know better. Although volcanic activity is the source of some earthquakes, today faulting is seen as their major cause.
When rock slips against rock, tremendous energy is released which is propagated in all directions from the point in the form of complex vibrations in the solid earth.
Current earthquake activity engenders some of the questions people have always asked, and some new ones in the bargain.
Is there a connection between the recent earthquakes which have occurred both locally and abroad? The answer to this one is a definite No.
When one considers that some 150,000 natural earthquakes are observed every year the world over, two or three major quakes are bound to occur in some given week, and who's to say that one is related to another?
One could consider that all earthquakes are in a sense cousins--related one to the other by the mere fact of the earth's creation some billions of years ago.
It has been reliably estimated that as many as a million earthquakes occur annually that could be recorded if suitable measuring devices were distributed widely over the globe.
Still another question involves possible relation of recent earthquake activity to underground nuclear testing. Have the Nevada tests touched off the tremors here, and did underground testing by the Russians trigger the severe quake in Iran?
Chances for an affirmative response are so remote as to be almost completely out of the question.
Our feeble nuclear blasts are puny indeed compared to nature's storehouse of energy.
We have also begun to wonder if earthquakes have been "in season" in recent weeks. All studies to date have shown no periodicity in the occurrence of quakes, with the sole exception of aftershocks.
The quakes along the Wasatch, that of a week ago and that of Wednesday, may or may not be related.
Sometimes quakes which originate but a few miles apart have no apparent connection whatsoever.
[Salt Lake Tribune; September 6, 1962]
What should you do when an earthquake hits?
State Civil Defense authorities warned Wednesday citizens risk serious injury or death if they fail to take proper action during or immediately after an earthquake tremor.
Because most people, generally, can be expected to be indoors at any given time, the first point to remember is to stay indoors, said Leonard A. Higgins, state civil defense director.
Do not attempt to vacate a building during or immediately after an earthquake tremor.
If you are indoors, seek safety under a bed, under a table, under a desk.
Of several buildings damaged in Salt Lake City in Wednesday's quake, Mr. Higgins noted, debris fell on beds, tables or desks and the areas under those pieces of furniture remained unscathed.
Do not, under any circumstances, run from a building during or immediately after the earth tremor.
There is much greater danger of serious injury or death, he warned, from falling debris from great heights under the eaves of buildings, particularly in the downtown area.
If you are on the street when an earth tremor occurs do not under the eaves of buildings, or under the eaves.
You are safest in a clearing where nothing can strike you from above. In this situation, too, the greatest danger may be from debris falling from the facings or eaves of buildings.
[Salt Lake Tribune; September 6, 1962]
By William C. Patrick
Tribune Science Editor
The Richter scale was devised by Dr. Charles Richter of the California Institute of Technology to make possible the recording of distant earthquakes on delicate teleseismic instruments, such as the one at the University of Utah.
The numbers on the scale begin at one and range upward. The progression in the measurement of earthquake magnitude is logarithmic. In other words, an increase of one on the scale indicates a multiplication of magnitude by 10.
For instance, if the magnitude of the Wednesday Salt Lake quake were taken at five this means the Cache Valley quake generated nearly 10 times as much energy.
The U. of U. gave it a Richter rating of 5 and seven-tenths, and Caltech, six. The Hebgen quake of 1959 had a rating of slightly over seven. Therefore it had 100 times the magnitude of the Salt Lake quake.
Magnitude readings are approximately the same, whether measured 20 miles from the epicenter, or several hundred.
When a teleseismic instrument is close to a temblor of some magnitude, the needle is thrown off the recording device for the duration of the heaviest shock. This happened at the U. of U. instrument in both the Cache Valley and Salt Lake quakes.
Utah State University, Logan, and Carbon College, Price, have what are called strong motion seismographs.
They will not show far distant tremors, but they give a picture of nearby quakes, because the needles are not thrown off the recording device.
[Salt Lake Tribune; September 6, 1962]
Yessir, there was a genuine crack in the State Office Building after Wednesday's quake.
The discoverers pointed it out to fellow workers. The news spread quickly of the crack above the fountain on the east end of the third floor. More employees came to look at the genuine crack in the wall. Visitors were told of its appearance. It was featured in some radio news reports.
The only thing wrong with it is that it was not new. Mrs. Georgia Rytting, deputy director of the drivers' license division--with offices adjacent to the crack--figures the crack has been in business for about a year.
It just didn't get any attention before people became crack-conscious.
[Salt Lake Tribune; September 6, 1962]
Officials of the Catholic Church said there was no damage to the Cathedral of the Madeleine, 331 E. South Temple, due to Wednesday's earthquake, although some plaster dust fell from two areas that regularly drop dust whenever there is a strong wind or rainstorm. No structural damage was noted.
[Salt Lake Tribune; September 6, 1962]
MAGNA--An unidentified plumber probably had a tough time convincing his wife Wednesday night he had indeed worked all day repairing earthquake damage.
Ray B. Packard, manager, State Liquor Store No. 11, Magna, said the plumber asked him to stop pouring spilled liquor in the store toilet and washbasin.
When the 9:05 a.m. quake hit, it smashed liquor store merchandise on the floor and ruptured the building sewer and water pipes.
While the plumber worked in the basement to repair line breaks, Mr. Packard poured spilled liquor from above into the severed pipes.
"He smelled like a distillery," Mr. Packard said. "I hope his wife believes his story."
[Salt Lake Tribune; September 6, 1962]
Some constructive value was seen in earthquakes Wednesday by at least one Salt Lake family.
Mrs. Valjean Chapman, 808 Coatsville (1790 South), reported an old mantel clock that has refused to run for years suddenly started ticking shortly after the Wednesday morning Salt Lake Valley quake.
About 9:20 a.m., Mrs. Chapman said, she went into the basement where the clock is stored and found it "ticking away like new."
[Salt Lake Tribune; September 6, 1962]
By Associated Press
LOGAN, Sept. 5--Nerves of Cache Valley residents were set on edge Wednesday by the earthquake in Salt Lake City, but few persons reported feeling the tremor.
The Logan-Cache Fire Department reported a small tremor Tuesday about 8 p.m. shook the fire station and knocked plaster from the walls. But no one else felt the shake.
Dr. J. Stewart Williams, collaborator for Utah for the U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, and B. J. Morrill, San Francisco, of the agency's seismological field survey, released data on the quake that shook Cache Valley last week.
The tremor lasted for approximately 35 seconds and a second small quake started approximately 55 seconds after the beginning of the first one, their report noted.
As inspection of damage in last week's temblor continued, more damage was found to homes and the Red Cross unit in the area has reported some 42 families have been interviewed after applying for assistance.
[Salt Lake Tribune; September 6, 1962]
OGDEN (AP)--Although the Wednesday morning earthquake shook Weber County slightly, it was over in about four seconds, and there were no reports of damage or injuries.
Law enforcement officers said they received some calls shortly after the temblor, but they were largely for information and reassurance.
Calls also were reported from Weber and north Davis counties from persons who said they felt the mild shake and heard the rumble.
[Salt Lake Tribune; September 6, 1962]
Aftershocks Go Unnoticed As Valley Sweeps Debris
By William C. Patrick
Only two mild aftershocks have been recorded since an earthquake rocked Salt Lake Valley Wednesday morning causing some property damage but no deaths or serious injuries.
Dr. S. T. Algermissen, associate professor of geophysics, University of Utah, said the U. seismograph registered a tremor Wednesday at 8:05 p.m. and another Thursday at 4:28 p.m.
They were not rated on the scale, and likely few if any inhabitants of the area noticed either one.
He had placed the epicenter of the main Wednesday shocks one mile west of Magna and the magnitude on the Richter scale at 5.1.
Meanwhile, cleanup of minor but widespread damage, particularly in the northwest sector of the county, was going ahead Thursday, and inspections of buildings with cracked walls were being made to ascertain safety for use.
Salt Lake building inspectors were instructing owners of four damaged homes in steps to be taken to prevent further damage or injury to inhabitants should more violent shocks cause weakened walls or ceilings to fall.
Both Granger and Cyprus High Schools, which had been closed pending assessment of minor damage, were reopened Thursday.
Jackson Elementary School, 750 W. 1st North, was closed for only a few hours Wednesday until a thorough structural check had been made.
Emergency repairs already were under way Thursday in four damaged homes in Salt Lake City, and cleanup operations were virtually completed in several stores where the shock caused merchandise to be thrown from shelves to the floor.
Utilities continued to function after the quake, although crews were kept busy for several hours repairing a high-pressure gas leak at 3000 West and 300 North in West Point, Davis County.
Although the Salt Lake temblor was of lower magnitude than the Cache Valley quake of a week earlier, it was felt with greater intensity in Salt Lake City because the origin of the earth displacement was closer.
[Salt Lake Tribune; September 7, 1962]
By Dr. Robert R. Kadesch
University of Utah
Far below the surface of the earth millions of tons of rock have been moving slowly year by year.
Urged on by forces not yet completely understood, the rock gradually builds up strains that cannot continue to increase indefinitely. Suddenly and unpredictably, something gives.
Either the rock fractures to relieve the strain or, as is more often the case, the rock slips along a line of fracture that had been formed previously thousands or millions of years ago.
The pent-up energy contained in the deformed rock is suddenly released to radiate in all directions. The result--an earthquake that may range from the barely perceptible to the enormously devastating and destructive.
Waves are radiated from the point of slippage much like water waves that form when a pebble strikes the surface of a quiet pond. The waves in the solid earth, in contrast, are far more complex and contain almost inconceivable amounts of energy.
At a distant point, the first waves to arrive move the earth's surface largely in an up and down direction.
These so-called primary, or P waves have outsped the more complex waves to follow. P waves are compressional waves, like sound, that produce motion in the solid earth.
A completely different type of wave arrives a little later. Solid bodies, unlike the air, are capable of transmitting a kind of wave known as shear waves. When these arrive the vibrational motion of the earth may be largely horizontal.
Imagine standing on a rug with someone pulling on both ends, first one way and then the other.
Shear waves, also called secondary or S waves, are usually larger vibrations than the P waves.
Adding this fact to the back and forth motion they often produce, one can understand why earthquakes are often so destructive to buildings and structures of all kinds.
Man-made structures are usually designed to withstand vertical forces such as those produced by P waves, for even a building must support its own weight. Buildings are not usually designed, however, to withstand a horizontal shaking back and forth.
The last to arrive are the so-called long, or L, waves.
L waves are the most complex of all, and many different types are known.
In contrast to both P and S waves, these hug the earth's surface exclusively.
The San Francisco quake of 1906 provides the classic example of the kind of earth motion usually involved in the production of large earthquakes.
The ground along the northeast side of the San Andreas fault was left displaced up to 21 feet with respect to the earth on the southwest side of the fault.
The earth shifted to some extent for a distance of about 250 miles along the fault line.
In this instance the motion of the land was largely horizontal.
The movement northeast of the fault having moved southeasterly with respect to the ground on the southwest side of the fault.
One can imagine a similar occurrence for most large quakes in which the direction of slippage might be nearly vertical or inclined at some angle to the ground surface.
The depth below the surface at which this occurs might be from 5 to 45 miles.
The most active earthquake regions the world over lie along or near a belt called the continental fracture system.
This belt is divided in two parts which form a great T that enfolds the earth.
The stroke of the T extends along the Mediterranean region through the Alps, through Turkey, Iran, through the Himalayan Mountains, and through Indonesia, New Guinea, and New Zealand.
The stem of the T starts in the Celebes to encircle the Pacific Ocean through the Philippines, Japan, Alaska and down the western coasts of both Americas to Antarctica.
The earth's second principal fracture system is outlined by the mid-ocean ridges.
These form a second, continuous, and worldwide system near which many shallow earthquakes originate.
[Salt Lake Tribune; September 9, 1962]
Click here for Deseret News (Salt Lake City, UT) Newspaper Articles for the 1962 Magna, UT Earthquake.
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