“Earthquakes”

Date

2-18-1812

Newspaper

Petersburg Intelligencer

Page and Column

Page 3, Column 2

Newspaper Location

Petersburg, Virginia

Serial Number

1033

Abstract

Report from the Raleigh Star for the February 7, 1812 earthquake. Time of the earthquake was $;00 am (local time) Notes damage reports from the press from Tennessee, South Carolina, Ohio and Maryland.

Transcript

Earthquakes.--Another shock of an Earthquake was felt in this city and various other places, about 4 o'clock on Friday morning last the 7th inst. A condensed account of what the paper from various parts of the United States have furnished respecting the different Earthquakes which have happened lately, follows. The shocks seem to have been more severe to the southward and westward, than to the northward At Chillicothe, after the 16th of December, the motion of the earth continued several days. The Steam Boat on the Mississippi (which has reached Natchez) was much affected by the shock-It is said a high bluff of considerable extent had fallen into the river. At Natchez the shock was severe, but at New Orleans it was not felt, owing as the editor of one of the papers supposes, to the town being on an Island [erroneous supposition no doubt.] At Nashville Log Houses were so violently shaken, that where the chimnies pieced the roof, they were generally broken off. Several feet square land on Piney river, it was said, had sunk [those sinks are common in that country without earthquakes] In Annappolis, the Steeple of the State house is 250 feet high, and it vibrated at the top about 6 feet. The captain of the guard at Charleston heard the bell of St. Philip's Church ring about 40 pearls He ran to the guard to prevent an alarm.-The Centinel stationed in the Steeple of St. Michaels Church [a man is always [unreadable] the steeple undulated he believed 5 feet, so as to throw him down. In some places the earthquake was accompanied with a noise, in others not. Many persons were affected with nausea and giddiness. The motion of the earth gave the sensation of swinging, and was not jarring or tremulous.-Its cause may exist in the Volcanoes of South America or in those discovered by Lewis and Clark, in their journey to the Pacific ocean. Raleigh "Star."

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