1692 Jamaica earthquake

Earthquake and tsunami in British Jamaica October 2024 1692 Jamaica earthquake yes yes 1692 06 07 11:43 Jamaica 7.5 MwMcCann W.R. Caribbean tsunami hazard: Proceedings of the NSF Caribbean Tsunami Workshop Mercado-Irizarry A, & Liu P. World Scientific Publishing Co. 2004 43–65 Estimating the threat of tsunamigenic earthquakes and earthquake induced-landslide tsunami in the Caribbean http://www.eird.org/deslizamientos/pdf/eng/doc15715/doc15715.pdf 10 km 18.00 -76.5 inline,title Jamaica Yes Around 5,000 Sunken Pirate City of Port Royal 1692 — uploaded by Mattes 2022.jpg The 1692 Jamaica earthquake struck Port Royal, Jamaica, on 7 June. A stopped pocket watch found in the harbour during a 1959 excavationHamilton D.L. Text-Aided Archaeology CRC Press 1991 978-0-8493-8853-8 Little B.J. 40 4: Simon Benning, Pewterer of Port Royal https://books.google.com/books?id=iDF7bEERFqUC&pg=PA40http://trentsevernantiqueboats.com/news/link.pdf The Link Collections 18 March 2019 16 April 2016 https://web.archive.org/web/20160416205123/http://trentsevernantiqueboats.com/news/link.pdf dead Sunken Pirate City at Port Royal indicated that it occurred around 11:43 AM local time.https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/world/events/1692_06_07.php Historic Earthquakes: Jamaica 1692 June 07 UTC United States Geological Survey 21 October 2009 6 December 2009 dead https://web.archive.org/web/20091217203828/http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/world/events/1692_06_07.php 17 December 2009 Known as the "storehouse and treasury of the West Indies" and as the "wickedest city in the world", Port Royal was, at the time, a key city in colonial Jamaica and one of the busiest and wealthiest ports in the Americas, as well as a common home port for many of the privateers and pirates operating on the Caribbean Sea. The 1692 earthquake caused most of the city to sink below sea level. About 2,000 people died as a result of the earthquake and the following tsunami, and another 3,000 people died in the following days due to injuries and disease. Tectonic setting thumb|The Gonâve microplate, showing the main fault zones that bound it Jamaica lies on the boundary between the Caribbean plate and the Gonâve microplate. The Gonâve microplate is a 1100 km on long strip of mainly oceanic crust formed by the Cayman spreading ridge within a strike-slip pull-apart basin on the northern transform margin of the Caribbean plate with the North American plate.DeMets C. Wiggins-Grandison W. 2007 Deformation of Jamaica and motion of the Gonâve microplate from GPS and seismic data Geophysical Journal International 168 1 362–378 10.1111/j.1365-246X.2006.03236.x 2007GeoJI.168..362D free Jamaica was formed by uplift associated with a restraining bend along this strike-slip structure.Mann P. Demets C. & Wiggins-Grandison M. Restraining bends, transpressional deformation and basement controls on development Cunningham W.D. & Mann P. Geological Society, London 2007 Geological Society, London, Special Publications 290 239–253 Toward a better understanding of the Late Neogene strike-slip restraining bend in Jamaica: geodetic, geological, and seismic constraints http://www.geology.wisc.edu/~chuck/PDF/Mann_Jam_07_SpecVol.pdf The focal mechanisms of earthquakes around Jamaica are primarily sinistral strike-slip along WSW-ENE trending faults and minor reverse or thrust motion on NW-SE trending faults. The 1692 event is thought to have occurred on one of these strike-slip faults. Damage thumb|Old map of Port Royal. Light section at top and going down toward the right is the part of the city lost in the 1692 earthquake; slightly shaded middle section, the part of the city that was flooded; darkly shaded bottom section is the part of the city that survived. thumb|Map of Port Royal showing shorelines before and after the earthquake Two-thirds of the town, about 13 ha (33 acres), sank into the sea immediately after the main shock. According to Robert Renny in his An History of Jamaica (1807): "All the wharves sunk at once, and in the space of two minutes, nine-tenths of the city were covered with water, which was raised to such a height, that it entered the uppermost rooms of the few houses which were left standing. The tops of the highest houses were visible in the water and surrounded by the masts of vessels, which had been sunk along with them."Renny Robert An history of Jamaica: with observations on the climate, scenery, trade, productions, negroes, slave trade, diseases of Europeans, customs, manners, and dispositions of the inhabitants: to which is added, an illustration of the advantages which are likely to result from the abolition of the Slave Trade J. Cawthorn 1807 333 https://archive.org/details/anhistoryjamaic00renngoog Before the earthquake the town consisted of 6,500 inhabitants living in about 2,000 buildings, many constructed of brick and with more than one storey, and all built on loose sand. During the shaking, the sand liquefied and the buildings, along with their occupants, appeared to flow into the sea. More than twenty ships moored in the harbour were capsized. One ship, the frigate Swann 1673 6, was carried over the rooftops by the tsunami.O'Loughlin K. F. Lander J. F. Caribbean Tsunamis: a 500-year history from 1498–1998 Springer 2003 Advances in natural and technological hazards research 20 263 https://books.google.com/books?id=lp3tpC510MkC&pg=PR9 978-1-4020-1717-9 During the main shock, the sand was said to have formed waves. Fissures repeatedly opened and closed, crushing many people. After the shaking stopped the sand again solidified, trapping many victims. Palisadoes cemetery, where the grave of the former pirate Sir Henry Morgan was located, was one of the parts of the city to fall into the sea; his body has never been found.Allen Hubert Raymond Buccaneer : admiral Sir Henry Morgan 1976 Barker 0-213-16569-4 London 2202685 At Liguanea (present-day Kingston), all the houses were destroyed and water was ejected from 12-metre (40-foot) deep wells. Almost all the houses at St. Jago (Spanish Town) were destroyed.http://www.dnr.wa.gov/Publications/ger_tsuinfo_2001_v3_no4.pdf The Port Royal, Jamaica Earthquake and Tsunami of June 7, 1692 2001 TsuInfo Alert v. 3, No.4 https://web.archive.org/web/20091221022507/http://www.dnr.wa.gov/Publications/ger_tsuinfo_2001_v3_no4.pdf 21 December 2009 Many landslides occurred across the island. The largest, the Judgement Cliff landslide, killed 19 people, although heavy rains a few months later may have been the final trigger. Several rivers were temporarily dammed and a few days after the earthquakes the harbour became flooded with large numbers of trees stripped of their bark brought down after one of these dams was breached.Lyell Charles Principles of Geology 1837 1 447 XXV http://www.esp.org/books/lyell/principles/facsimile/contents/lyell-v1-ch25.pdf dead https://www.webcitation.org/5gwhvRCJL?url=http://www.esp.org/books/lyell/principles/facsimile/contents/lyell-v1-ch25.pdf 21 May 2009 A pocket watch, made in the Netherlands by the French maker Blondel in about 1686, was recovered during underwater archaeological investigations led by Edwin Link in 1959. The watch was stopped with its hands pointing to 11:43 AM; this matches well with contemporary accounts of the timing of the earthquake. Aftermath Even before the destruction was complete, some of the survivors began looting, breaking into homes and warehouses. The dead were also robbed and stripped, and, in some cases, had fingers cut off to remove the rings that they wore. In the immediate aftermath of the earthquake, it was common to ascribe the destruction to divine retribution on the people of Port Royal for their sinful ways. Members of the Jamaica Council declared: "We are become by this an instance of God Almighty's severe judgement." This view of the disaster was not confined to Jamaica; in Boston, the Reverend Cotton Mather said in a letter to his uncle: "Behold, an accident speaking to all our English America".https://www.scribd.com/doc/185283/The-Port-Royal-Earthquake-History-Today The Port Royal Earthquake Gragg L. 2000 History Today 21 December 2009 After the earthquake, the town was partially rebuilt. But the colonial government was relocated to Spanish Town, which had been the capital under Spanish rule. Port Royal was devastated by a fire in 1703 and a hurricane in 1722. Most of the sea trade moved to Kingston. By the late 18th century, Port Royal was largely abandoned.http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/pages/history/story001.html 1692:Earthquake of Port Royal Tortello Rebecca 22 December 2009 https://web.archive.org/web/20100309071447/http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/pages/history/story001.html 9 March 2010 dead Characteristics Earthquake There were three separate shocks, each with increasing intensity, culminating in the main shock. The estimated size of the event was 7.5 on the moment magnitude scale. Despite reports of the town flowing into the sea, the main result of the earthquake was subsidence caused by liquefaction. This would also explain an eyewitness account of houses being swallowed and people being buried up to their necks in the sand.http://jamaicaportroyal.com/eyewitness.html Eye Witness Account of Port Royal 1692 Earthquake The probable triggering of the Judgement Cliff landslide during the earthquake occurred along the line of the Plantain Garden fault. Movement on this structure has been suggested as the cause of the earthquake. Landslides The Judgement Cliff landslide is a complex rock-slide slump with a volume of about 131–181 million m3 and displaced the land surface by up to 800 m 0. The slip surface is found within zones of clay and shale with gypsum at the base of a limestone unit. This landslide occurred after the earthquake but it remains possible that heavy rain during a hurricane in October later that year was the final trigger for the slip, as the exact date of the landslide is uncertain.Maharaj R.J. 1994 The morphology, geometry and kinematics of Judgement Cliff rock avalanche, Blue Mountains, Jamaica, West Indies Quarterly Journal of Engineering Geology 27 3 243–256 10.1144/GSL.QJEGH.1994.027.P3.05 129588923 Tsunami The sea was observed to retreat by about 300 yd m on at Liguanea (probably near Kingston) while at Yallahs it withdrew 1 mi km on. It returned as a 6 ft m on high wave that swept over the land. One possible cause of the tsunami is thought to be the slump and grain flow into the harbour from beneath the town itself, although the waves in the harbour may be better described as seiches and larger waves reported elsewhere, such as at Saint Ann's Bay, are explained as the result of an entirely separate submarine landslide, also triggered by the earthquake. Future seismic hazard Estimates of current deformation of Jamaica suggest that sufficient strain has accumulated to generate a M=7.0–7.3 earthquake, similar in size to the 1692 event. This may mean that a repeat of this event is imminent, although this estimate relies on many assumptions, such as that none of the motion on the Plantain Garden fault is accommodated by aseismic creep. See also Jamaica Earth sciences List of historical earthquakes List of earthquakes in the Caribbean References Further reading Captain Crocket A true and perfect relation of that most sad and terrible earthquake, at Port-Royal in Jamaica, which happened on Tuesday the 7th. of June, 1692. : Where, in two minutes time the town was sunk under ground, and two thousand souls perished: With the manner of it at large; in a letter from thence 1692 878461697 R. Smith London none https://www.awesomestories.com/asset/view/Earthquake-at-Port-Royal-Jamaica-1692-Contemporary-Drawing Category:Earthquakes in the Caribbean Category:Natural disasters in Jamaica Jamaica Earthquake, 1692 Category:1690s earthquakes Category:1692 disasters Category:17th century in Jamaica Category:Port Royal Category:Henry Morgan