Cascadia Catalog 1793-1930

	Cascadia Historic Earthquake Catalog, 1793-1929 Covering Washington, Oregon and Southern British Columbia Provided by: The Pacific Northwest Seismic Network About the Cascadia Historic Earthquake Catalog One-line catalog format 1793-1849 .... 1850s .... 1860s .... 1870s .... 1880s .... 1890s .... 1900s .... 1910s .... 1920s .... 1930s (not complete) .... Other Cascadia Catalogs

Individual Event Report

Event #560 - Summary, and parameter estimates with source IDs
This earthquake, and sequence of earthquakes that followed a few hours later, were reported by George Eby in the BSSA (V.11, pp. 195-196):"Earth Disturbances at Dixie, Washington, September 14, 1921 ... The first disturbance came at approximately three o'clock in the morning. It was quite severe, but, since it was just a solitary jar, it could not arouse one sufficiently from sleep in time to make careful observations....(At) five o'clock .... there was a very sudden blow, accompanied by a sound like that of a deep blast of dynamite in rock. This sound was instantanous with the jar and of sufficient volume to be heard easily and distinctly.... The shaking of the ground was ... one sudden blow. The action seemed to be vertical rather than horizonal. The bed was shaken quite perceptibly and the building was also visibly shaken and agitated enough to rattle a great deal. An automobile, which was standing within three feet of the bed, was observed to have no horizontal or rocking motion. The movement was comparable to that caused by a car on hitting a sharp bump. About a minute later, there were three tremors following each other in close succession. The sound and motion of each succeeding one was exactly the same as the first, except weaker. Within the next ten minutes there were four other independent shocks, similar, but growing rapidly weaker. Then five minutes later there were several light decreasing remors, each accompanied by a sound correspondingly less audible. These diminished until they could no longer be detected...some people in Waitsburg, ten miles distant, and College Place, fifteen miles, claimed to have felt them slightly...."
TIME							LOCATION			MAGNITUDE		MAX. INTENSITY					FELT AREA
YR	MO	DAY	HR	MIN	AM/PM	Time Type	LAT(N)	LON(W)	DEP (km)	MAG	Mag Type	Felt Plc.	Felt St.	Inten- sity	Int. Type	Felt Area	Felt Area Int.	Felt Area Units
1921	9	14	3		A		46.33	118.16				Dixie	WA	VI	RF
BSSA - 2183							REID1 - 788		-	-		TAWA - 1167				-

Underlying Source Material

Source ID	Publication	Pub Date	Pub Details
1850	Woodward Clyde Consultants, unpublished	1981	Woodward-Clyde Consultants (1981), Historical Catalog (1841-1980) for the Pacific Northwest Region, unpublished catalog prepared for the Washington Public Power Supply System. Copy provided to UW in 1993.
Transcription: 192109141100000 46100-118250W VI R 6 01

Source ID	Publication	Pub Date	Pub Details
159	Rasmussen, Norman, 1967, Washington state earthquakes 1840 through 1965, BSSA V. 57, No. 3, pp. 463-476	1967
Transcription: 159 1921 Sept. 14 See Remarks Dixie-Walla Walla V-VI 4 four shocks felt; 11: , 13:, 13:05, 13:20

Source ID	Publication	Pub Date	Pub Details
2183	Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America	1921	V. 11, pp. 195-196
Transcription: Earth Disturbances at Dixie, Washington, September 14, 1921 by George Eby Dixie, a little village of perhaps one hundred and fifty people, is situated at the forks of a "U"-shaped valley about one-half mile wide, through which a small stream runs. The elevation of the place is approximately 1,500 feet. The village is five miles from the foot of the Blue Mountains. At the mouth of one of the forks is a large rock quarry which has been operated for about eight years, and, as a result, one quite large cliff has been practically removed. The quarry is composed of basaltic rock with considerable sedimentary calcium-carbonate in the crevices. No earth disturbances previous to September 14, 1921, had ever been recorded. On the night of the 14th I was sleeping in an open building, with the bed placed directly on the ground. The first disturbance came at approximately three o'clock in the morning. It was quite severe, but, since it was just a solitary jar, it could not arouse one sufficiently from sleep in time to make careful observations. Everything was the quiet until five o'clock, when there was a very sudden blow, accompanied by a sound like that of a deep blast of dynamite in rock. This sound was instantanous with the jar and of sufficient volume to be heard easily and distinctly, but not great enough to justify the severity of the shock. That is, I have observed that a blast at the quarry with perhaps one-fourth the disturbing force would have a report with about ten times the intensity, and coming considerably after the jar. The shaking of the ground was not a continued vibrating or rocking motion, but was just one sudden blow. The action seemed to be vertical rather than horizonal. The bed was shaken quite perceptibly and the building was also visibly shaken and agitated enough to rattle a great deal. An automobile, which was standing within three feet of the bed, was observed to have no horizontal or rocking motion. The movement was comparable to that caused by a car on hitting a sharp bump. About a minute later, there were three tremors following each other in close succession. The sound and motion of each succeeding one was exactly the same as the first, except weaker. Within the next ten minutes there were four other independent shocks, similar, but growing rapidly weaker. Then five minutes later there were several light decreasing remors, each accompanied by a sound correspondingly less audible. These diminished until they could no longer be detected. But the surprising thing to me about all the jars was that I could distinguish no difference in time between the shock and its sound. This even held true with the minor trembling. These last reprots resembled in tone and volume a blast at great distance. No damage in the nature of broken chimneys was observed, although some smaller articles were disturbed. These shocks were not noticed by the farmers who lived more than a mile away from town, although some people in Waitsburg, ten miles distant, and College Place, fifteen miles, claimed to have felt them slightly. Careful inquiry brought forth no evidence that any large explosions had been set off in the vicinity, or that any of the dynamite in the quarry had been disturbed. WHITMAN COLLEGE, WALLA WALLA, WASH.

Source ID	Publication	Pub Date	Pub Details
1167	Townley, S. D. and M. W. Allen, 1939, Descriptive Catalog of Earthquakes of the Pacific Coast of the United States 1769-1928, Chap. III Earthquakes in Washington, 1883-1928, BSSA, V. 29, No. 1, pp. 259-268	1939
Transcription: 1921 September 14. About 3 a.m., 5 a.m., 5:01 a.m., and following fifteen minutes. V or VI. Dixie, Walla Walla Co. Local; felt only feebly ten or fifteen miles away. Sharp jars as of vertical blow from beneath.-BSSA, 11, 195.

Source ID	Publication	Pub Date	Pub Details
788	Reid, unpub., Scrapbook and Cardfile, on microfilm at USGS in Menlo Park
Transcription: Dixie 46 degree 20' N; 118 degrees 10' W PST 3 am, 5 am 14 Sept, 1921 GMT say 13h IV (?) -Bull SSA, XI, 95-96 Series of sharp, verticle shocks with simultaneous sounds (...) not recorded at Spokane College about 120 mi distant said the first shocks ever occurring in this neigh- borhood.