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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 #285 - Summary, and parameter estimates with source IDs                                           
Meteorite Meteorite. Holden (1898) says: "1895. June 15; Port Townsend, Washington, June 16. [Chimacum, a small farming center 4 miles from here, was terribly shaken last night at 8 o'clock by the falling of a huge meteor, which burst with a loud noise, and after causing a small-sized cyclone of several minutes duration, buried itself deep in the muddy bottom of a neighboring lagoon. The meteor struck with force enough to break crockery in farmhouses 3 miles away and created great terror among the residents. Ten hours after the occurrence the waters of the lagoon were still bubbling and seething, and were found to be hot. Systematic dragging of the lagoon failed to bring up any traces of the celestial messenger.__S. F. Examiner, June 17, 1895.] "
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
1895  15              Port Townsend  WA           
HOLD2 - 1911 - - - HOLD2 - 1911 -

Underlying Source Material
Source ID Publication Pub Date Pub Details
1911  Holden, E.S., 1898, A Catalog of Earthquakes on the Pacific Coast 1769-1897, Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, 1087  1898   
Transcription: 1895. June 15; Port Townsend, Washington, June 16. [Chimacum, a small farming center 4 miles from here, was terribly shaken last night at 8 o'clock by the falling of a huge meteor, which burst with a loud noise, and after causing a small-sized cyclone of several minutes duration, buried itself deep in the muddy bottom of a neighboring lagoon. The meteor struck with force enough to break crockery in farmhouses 3 miles away and created great terror among the residents. Ten hours after the occurrence the waters of the lagoon were still bubbling and seething, and were found to be hot. Systematic dragging of the lagoon failed to bring up any traces of the celestial messenger.__S. F. Examiner, June 17, 1895.]
 
Source ID Publication Pub Date Pub Details
2555  Port Townsend Morning Leader  1895  June 20, 1895- Transcript provided by Robert Forbes 
Transcription: OUR METEOR ON THE ROAD - The following is a Spokane paper's account of the falling of a meteor recently near Chimacum, the true account of which appeared in the Morning Leader.

Port Townsend, June 16. - Last night at 8 o'clock, Chimacum, a small farming center four miles from here, experienced a terrific explosion and jar, the result of the falling of a 5,000 pound meteor which burst with a loud noise at the height of a hundred yards, and after causing a small sized cyclone of several minutes duration, buried itself deep in the muddy waters of a neighboring lagoon. The meteor struck the bottom with force enough to break crockery in farmhouses three miles away, creating terror among the residents, who believed that the end of the world had come. Ten hours after the occurrence the waters of the lagoom were still bubbling and seething, and were found to be hot enough to readily cook an egg. A systematic dragging of the lagoon failed to bring up any trace of the celestial messenger, which is believed to have buried itself in the earth.
 
Source ID Publication Pub Date Pub Details
272  Bradford, Donald C., 1935, Seismic History of the Puget Sound Basin, BSSA, V. 25, No. 2, pp. 138-153  1935   
Transcription: 1895 June 15; Port Townsend, June 16. Chimacum, a small farming center four miles from here, was terribly shaken last night at 8 o'clock by the falling of a huge meteor, which burst with a loud noise, and after causing a small-sized cyclone of several minutes' duration, buried itself deep in the muddy bottom of a neighboring lagoon. The meteor struck with force enough to break crockery in farmhouses three miles away and created great terror among the residents. Ten hours after the occurrence the waters of the lagoon were still bubbling and seething, and were found to be hot. Systematic dragging of the lagoon failed to bring up any traces of the celestial messenger (San Francisco Examiner, June 17, 1895).
 


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