Charleston Earthquake (1886): The Southeast's Great Quake

The Charleston earthquake struck South Carolina at about 9:50 p.m. on 31 August 1886, causing severe damage across the city of Charleston and killing about 60 people. With an estimated magnitude of around 7, it is the most powerful earthquake recorded in the southeastern United States and one of the largest in the history of the eastern part of the country. The scientific study that followed became a landmark in American seismology.

Background

Charleston was one of the oldest cities in the American South, with many brick buildings dating from the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. It was still recovering from the Civil War and from a damaging hurricane in 1885.

Earthquakes were not unknown in the eastern United States, notably the New Madrid earthquakes of 1811–1812 in the Mississippi Valley, but residents of Charleston had no reason to expect a major one. Small tremors were felt near Summerville in the days before the main shock.

The earthquake

The main shock lasted less than a minute. Survivors described a deep roar followed by violent shaking that brought down chimneys, walls and parapets throughout the city. Many people were killed by falling bricks as they ran into the streets.

Fires broke out where lamps and stoves were overturned. Outside the city, the ground cracked and sand and water erupted from fissures in “sand blows”, a sign of liquefaction, in which shaking turns waterlogged soil to a fluid-like state. Railway tracks near the epicentre were bent and twisted, and a train was derailed.

Strong aftershocks continued for weeks. Thousands of residents camped in tents and makeshift shelters in parks and open squares, afraid to sleep in damaged buildings.

Life after the shock

The first night after the earthquake was one of terror. Fires burned in several parts of the city while frightened residents gathered in streets and open spaces, unsure whether more shocks would follow. Telegraph lines were down, and news reached the outside world only gradually, through railway messengers and a few surviving connections.

In the following days the city authorities, churches and volunteer committees organised food, shelter and medical care. Tents supplied by the federal government and the state filled public squares such as Marion Square and the grounds around the city’s parks. Strong aftershocks on several nights renewed the panic, and many families stayed outdoors for weeks.

Public reaction mixed fear, religious interpretation and growing curiosity about the science of earthquakes. Newspapers across the country printed accounts and illustrations of the ruins, and the disaster drew sightseers once the worst danger had passed.

Damage

Almost every building in Charleston was damaged to some degree, and a large number had to be demolished or extensively repaired. Total damage was estimated at about $5–6 million, a very large sum for the city at the time. Churches, including St Michael’s, were cracked, and many homes lost their chimneys and upper walls.

During repairs many buildings were reinforced with iron rods running through the walls, secured on the outside by plates or decorative washers. These “earthquake bolts” can still be seen on houses in historic Charleston.

Relief money came from across the United States. Some of it was distributed in ways that favoured white residents over Black residents, reflecting the racial divisions of the post-Reconstruction South.

Scientific study

The U.S. Geological Survey sent geologists to investigate. Clarence Dutton, working with the local engineer Earle Sloan, collected thousands of reports of shaking from across the eastern United States and used them to map the intensity of the earthquake and estimate the depth and location of its source. Photographer John K. Hillers documented the damage.

Dutton’s report, published in 1889, was one of the most detailed studies of an earthquake made anywhere in the nineteenth century, and it remains an important source for scientists assessing earthquake hazard in the eastern US.

Geology of the quake

The Charleston area does not sit on the edge of a tectonic plate, which makes its earthquakes harder to explain than those of California. Scientists believe the 1886 shock occurred on ancient faults buried beneath the thick sediments of the coastal plain, reactivated by stresses within the North American plate.

Studies of buried sand-blow deposits have found evidence of several large prehistoric earthquakes in the same region over the past several thousand years. This suggests that the 1886 event was not unique, and that the area could experience another strong earthquake in the future.

By the numbers

Timeline

• 1886, 27–28 August: Small tremors felt near Summerville.
• 1886, 31 August, about 9:50 p.m.: Main shock strikes the Charleston area.
• 1886, September: Aftershocks continue; residents camp outdoors; relief committees form.
• 1886, autumn: USGS investigators study the damage and collect reports.
• 1889: Clarence Dutton’s report is published.

Why it matters

The Charleston earthquake showed that damaging earthquakes can strike far from the active plate boundaries of the American West. It shaped how the city rebuilt and how scientists understand earthquake hazards in the East, a subject that gained new attention after major quakes elsewhere such as the San Francisco earthquake of 1906.