Earthquake of 1887

This earthquake caused the Dragoon Springs to relocate uphill about 125 feet and changed the spring from free flowing into the stream, into a confined spring requiring water retrieval devices. Is it symbolic that the spring that Apache, Spanish, Mexican and Americans used, forever changed location and into a different kind of water source in 1887, a year after Geronimo surrendered and the massive killings in the American Southwest of all peoples finally drew to a close?

According to accounts about the ~7.4 magnitude Sonora earthquake, the towns of Bisbee, Tombstone, and Fort Huachuca were all damaged, and “entire mountainsides in the Santa Catalina Mountains [gave way] and caused clouds of dust visible for days.”

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On May 3, 1887, a major earthquake shook much of the southwestern United States and northern Mexico, an area of nearly two million square kilometers. This seismic event caused 51 deaths in northern Sonora, and major destruction of property in southeastern Arizona, as well as adjacent portions of Mexico. Moderate damage also occurred in New Mexico. The 1887 epicenter was south of the Arizona-Mexico border in the San Bernardino Valley along the western front of the Sierra Madre mountains. Historically, it is the largest earthquake known to have caused damage in Arizona.

Source: USGS at https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/ushis262/impact 

 

Abridged from The 1887 Earthquake in San Bernardino Valley, Sonora: Historic accounts and intensity patterns in Arizona, by Susan M. DuBois and Ann W. Smith, Special Paper No. 3, State of Arizona Bureau of Geology and Mineral Technology, Tucson: 1980.

 

This earthquake occurred in a sparsely settled region of northern Sonora, Mexico. It caused widespread damage to property, 51 deaths and many injuries (ref. 494 reports 150 deaths at Bavispe, Sonora [but most sources, including DuBois and Smith, consider that number to be incorrect]). From Guaymas, Sonora, to Nogales, Arizona; Benson and Tucson, Arizona; El Paso, Texas; and at towns as far away as Albuquerque, New Mexico, water in tanks slopped over, railroad cars were set in motion on tracks, chimneys were thrown down, and buildings were cracked. Other U.S. cities and towns that sustained moderate to heavy damage included Bisbee, Fairbank¹, Fort Huachuca, Saint David, San Simon, Solomonville², Tombstone, Tres Alamos³, and Willcox, Arizona; and Deming, Sabinal, and Silver City, New Mexico. Near the epicenter, liquefaction effects induced significant ground failure that led to the collapse of buildings and other structures.

At Tepic, Sonora, a town about 190 km south of Tombstone, Arizona, the walls and roofs of every house were shattered. Many of the walls had fallen out, and the roofs had collapsed. The plaza and streets at Tepic were "ripped up" by fissures, some as wide as 15 cm, and irrigation ditches around the town were broken. At Moctezuma, about 32 km south of Tepic, the houses were wrecked, and all inhabitants were living outside. At Oputo⁴, about 50 km northeast of Moctezuma, a church collapsed and killed 40 people who had run there for shelter from the earthquake. [Note: DuBois and Smith explain that although the church did collapse at Oputo, it was at Bavispe, not Oputo, where the people were killed when the church there collapsed.] American prospectors in that area reported that a ground fissure about 0.8 m wide was created by the earthquake.

The 76-km-long fault scarp produced by this earthquake is clearly exposed on the east side of the San Bernardino Valley of northern Sonora, southeast of Douglas, Arizona. The maximum displacement on the Pitáycachi fault is 4.5 to 5.1 m, and evidence exists for previous ruptures on the fault. A significant region of liquefaction was reported as far as 100 km from the fault, and landslides were observed at farther distances. In late 1972, the 1887 scarp was observed from the air along its total length. This study revealed many additional scarps, previously unmapped, paralleling the main fault trace. These scarps appear to represent active faulting over the previous several thousand years.

Seismic motion was felt from Toluca, Mexico (near Mexico City) to Albuquerque and Santa Fe, New Mexico; and from Baja California, Mexico, and Yuma, Arizona, to a point 100 km east of El Paso, Texas. There also was a report that the earthquake was felt in California. Many aftershocks were observed. (Ref. 38, 343, 471, 494, 497.)

Maximum observed Modified Mercalli Intensity (MMI) XII

Abridged from Seismicity of the United States, 1568-1989 (Revised), by Carl W. Stover and Jerry L. Coffman, U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 1527, United States Government Printing Office, Washington: 1993.

The town of Bavispe was completely destroyed, with no buildings being habitable. From 3 PM to 10 AM the next day there were 18 shocks, 3 of them very strong. Another account says that at Bavispe there were 71 shocks in 4 days and that aftershocks continued into July and August. Nearly all of the town of Guasabas [probably Huásabas] was destroyed. There was severe damage and landslides at Bacerac and Huachinera and several houses and a church were knocked down at Cumpas. At Hermosillo, the capital of Sonora and about 250 km southwest of Bavispe, cracks occurred in some of the buildings.

Across the Sierra Madre in Chihuahua, several houses and a church were damaged at Galeana and some buildings were damaged on farms in the Janos area.

At Cabo Haro, about 8 km south of Guaymas on the shore of the Gulf of California and about 345 km southwest of Bavispe, the sea receded then returned violently, causing some damage to the hillside on the west side of the lighthouse.

Several accounts of the earthquake talked about a volcanic eruption in the mountains near Bavispe, but this was refuted by a field study done by geologist José Aguilera shortly after the earthquake occurred. He explained that the smoke and flames were actually from grass fires that had started on the mountainsides.

Abridged from Los Sismos en La Historia de México, Tomo I, by Virginia García Acosta and Gerardo Suárez Reynoso, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México and Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios Superiores en Antropología Social, Fondo de Cultura Económica, México: 1996. Translated by Bruce Presgrave.

In a zone covering approximately 100 km north to south from southeast of Agua Prieta, past Colonia Morelos to southwest of Bavispe, 83.4 km of surface rupture with predominantly normal faulting was observed on the Pitáycachi, Teras and Otates faults. The maximum vertical offset was 4.87 m on the Pitáycachi fault, with average displacements of 2.41, 1.17 and 1.58 m, respectively, on the three faults. This zone of faulting is substantially longer than had been reported previously. The existence of the previously unreported Otates segment helps to explain why the damage was so severe at Bavispe and Oputo⁴, since this segment is closest to those communities. In addition, the geologic evidence indicates that the three segments ruptured independently, which matches with felt reports saying that there were several independent shocks several seconds apart.

Abridged from Active Tectonics of Northeastern Sonora, Mexico (Southern Basin and Range Province) and the 3 May 1887 Mw 7.4 Earthquake, by Max Suter and Juan Contreras, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, 92(2), p.581-589, March 2002.

This earthquake is "likely the earliest earthquake worldwide where tectonic surface faulting was recognized as such and described in detail."

Abridged from Contemporary Studies of the 3 May 1887 Mw 7.5 Sonora, Mexico (Basin and Range Province) Earthquake, by Max Suter, Seismological Research Letters, 77(2), p. 134-147, March 2006.

Historical Notes:
¹Fairbank, located about 15 km west of Tombstone, is no longer inhabited. The last residents left there in the 1970's.
²Solomonville is now named Solomon. It was renamed in the early 1900's.
³Tres Alamos apparently refers to what is now a ranch near Tres Alamos Wash, north of Benson.
Reference: U.S. Board on Geographic Names, Geographic Names Information System, online at https://www.usgs.gov/us-board-on-geographic-names/domestic-names, with date information from articles from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia, online at https://en.wikipedia,org/, retrieved 22 May 2020.

⁴Oputo is now named Villa Hidalgo. It was renamed on 01 Apr 1967.
Reference: Gobierno del Estado de Sonora, Los Municipios de Sonora, Enciclopedia de los Municipios de México, online at https://web.archive.org/web/20120403004051/http://www.e-local.gob.mx/work/templates/enciclo/sonora/municipios/26067a.htm, retrieved 26 May 2020.