1902 Guatemala earthquake

Severe earthquake in western Guatemala 1902 Guatemala earthquake official19020419022400000 16957763 1902-04-19 02:23:00 April 19, 1902 April 18, 1902 8:23 p.m. SanPerfecto1902 01.jpg Picture showing earthquake damage. Quetzaltenango after the earthquake Central America 1–2 min 7.5 MwWhite Ligorria Cifuentes 2004 387 VIII 25 km on 14 N 91 W Guatemala 800–2,000 The 1902 Guatemala earthquake occurred on April 18 at 8:23 pm with a moment magnitude of 7.5 and a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe). The rupture was initiated at a depth of 25 km on and the duration was 1 to 2 minutes. The foreshock and aftershock sequence of this incident were major. Before the main shock, there was an earthquake swarm which persisted for three months, and the tremors afterward lasted for more than two weeks. With hindsight, it is clear that this swarm and the mainshock were clear indicators of the awakening of the long-dormant Volcán Santa María, located 97 km on to the northwest, which led to the historic explosive eruption of 1902 which occurred 6 months later in October. A majority of churches in western Guatemala and eastern Chiapas were either severely devastated or abolished. The number of people killed was between 800 and 2,000.White Ligorria Cifuentes 2004 394 A strange occurrence of heavy rains, lightning, and thunder took place shortly before the earthquake. A few weeks before the earthquake, there was rain every afternoon for several days straight. Guatemala City was instantly flooded when massive gaps opened in the streets, water pipes ruptured, and huts along with cathedrals disintegrated and collapsed, burying hundreds. In just one hour, approximately 80,000 people were rendered homeless.Davis Lee Natural Disasters January 1, 2009 Infobase Publishing Facts on File Science Library 50 revised https://books.google.com/books?id=CRzMOYIuLJEC&pg=PA50 978-1-4381-1878-9 As soon as the earthquake struck, the sky cleared up and there was no rain for approximately three weeks. It has been said that the earthquake had something to do with an atmospheric disturbance connected with an electrical nature. The reason for this is that the early storms were electrical storms.Eisen Gustav The Earthquake and Volcanic Eruption in Guatemala in 1902 Bulletin of the American Geographical Society 1903 35 4 329 197952 See also List of earthquakes in Guatemala References PAGER-CAT Earthquake Catalog https://earthquake.usgs.gov/static/lfs/data/pager/catalogs/ https://web.archive.org/web/20200313112456/ftp://hazards.cr.usgs.gov/web/data/pager/catalogs/ dead 2020-03-13 September 4, 2009 United States Geological Survey Version 2008_06.1 Sources Natural Hazards in El Salvador https://books.google.com/books?id=xZp0mS_QWHMC&pg=PA394 Seismic history of the Middle America subduction zone along El Salvador, Guatemala, and Chiapas, Mexico: 1526–2000 R.A. White J.P. Ligorria I.L. Cifuentes 2004 Geological Society of America 375 10.1130/0-8137-2375-2.379 978-0-8137-2375-4 External links Historic World Earthquakes – United States Geological Survey Principales Eventos Sísmicos Del Siglo XX En Guatemala – Instituto Nacional de Sismología, Vulcanología, Meteorología e Hidrolagía 16957763 1902 Earthquake Category:1902 earthquakes Category:April 1902 in North America