The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-02-11
EARTHQUAKE SHOCK
VISITS NORTHEAST:
ONE MAN IS KILLED
TremOrs Felt Over Large
Section of New England.
Pictures Shaken From
Walls in Albany

New York. February IO.--An earth
and disturbing particularly what are
geographically known the Dcvonian
and Silurian sections of the northeast
ern parts of the United States. tool.
place shortly after 1 80 O'Clock p. m.
today.
1t was especially severe in the CEN
state. Virtually all of New York state,
including this city, felt the shock, and
New England generally, lower eastern
Canada and parts of New Jersey and
eastern Pennsylvania were shaken. Tre-
n ors We're recorded as far south as
Washington and as far west as ST.
Lcns
The Albany shock was severe enough
to snake pictures from the walls of the
capitol and in Binghamton laborer
was killed By the caving in of a trench
in which he was working At Fort Plain
the heavy doors of bank vault shook
under tnt influence of the quake and
from other parts of the state the fall
ing of chimneys, swaying of houses
ANA destruction of fragile Objects was
reported.
In New York the preliminary tre-
NOR was felt at 1:S5:15. AT 1:35:45 the
shock had reached its maximum inten-
sity and at 1890 the movement sub
sided altogether, making the total dur
alton of the quake two and one-q quar-
ter minutes, as given by the seismo
graph. The period in which the shock
was rorceptible by man was from 10
To 80 seconds and started in a ma
jCrity of cases about / 35
Movement From Northwest
So far as known the movement was
Iroln northwest to southeast with the
boundary lines of the territory af-
fected coverging to a point in the At
lantic.
Thn initial movement was at points
near the upper Atlantic seaboard about
1875 ana extended to places in the
northern parts of New York states
aboNt three minutes later, reaching AL
barry at 1886. Watertown at 1899 and
Rochester al 1881 From points be-
tween thcse cities the movement is re-
ported to have taken place between
:34 ard 1:3, No eismographic rec
ords being cbteinable from these local
tiles, the tlmc given in these cases
deals with this moment when the shock
was fei:.
Time of Shock
Points in central Massachusetts re-
rurt tho disturbances to have occurred
shortly before the time given by the
se,snl ograph CT the Museum of Natural
History of New York. At Philadelphia
the shock was felt at :33 and George
town university at Washington. ID. c.,
rE4 hn set atyt.a nh, arlx xad
the first trcinor at 141 this morning.
recording the actual shock at 1884. The
seismogrGph OF the Harvard geological
observatory, Cambridge, Mass, record
cd the fi's. tremor ac 1:33:25 and
marked totrl subsidence of the dis
turbnnce at :40:s4, overlapping both iii
initial movetne mt and end of quake the
records taken in New York city.
According to DR.. Edmund o. Hovey,
curator of geology of the American
Museum of Natural History, the character
of the record left by seismograph in hif
institution shows that the movement of
the quake was not attended by great lat.
eral oscillations. Slight tremors We're reg.
istered on his instrument yesterday at
irregular intervals, and throughout thu
last "a hours slight disturbances were n
corded, their general character indicating
that the movement was slight and entirely
local. f4t
Last Registered Shock
The last earthquake registered by the
seismograph Of the American Museum
took place on November s. 1912, and oc-
Cured in Alaska. The vibrations then
were twice as great as those made today
No local seismic disturbance comparable
in magnitude with the one recorded today
can be recalled by the attaches of the
museum. The last earthquake felt In
New York took place in the territory OF
Charleston, S. c., in 1856. In 1884 a gen.
eral disturbance took place over the
greater part of the area affected today.
According to James s. Ke emp, head of
the department of geology of Columbia
university, the movement today followed
in northern New York the line of the
Champlain fault, while in Canada it may
have travelled along the Logan fault,
both Of them huge fissures in the strata
of the older rock masses. and them
selves the products of earthquakes.
The only part of Greater New York
which felt the shock of the earthquake
severely enough 20 alarm the population
was the Heights section of Brooklyn,
where those who had sensed the shock
were under the impression that an ex-
plosion had occurred. In many Manhat-
ten office buildings slight tremor was
felt, but the disturbance was not great
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