Late on August 31, 1886, while many people were asleep, a large quake rocked Charleston, South Carolina, and the surrounding region, toppling buildings, buckling railroad tracks, and causing sand to "boil" or bubble from liquefaction. By the time the shaking stopped, approximately 2,000 structures were damaged and at least 60 people had lost their lives.
The story of some violent historic earthquakes may need to be revisited, according to a study published in the April issue of the Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (BSSA).
When conventional seismometers in Haiti failed before the 2010 quake, less sophisticated devices operated by citizen scientists helped seismic researchers fill in the blanks.