The 1886 Charleston, South Carolina, Earthquake: Relic Railroad Offset Reveals Rupture

Abstract

In the absence of documented surface rupture during the 1 September 1886 Charleston earthquake, there has been considerable speculation about the location and mechanism of the causative fault. We use an inferred coseismic offset of the South Carolina Railroad and additional numerical constraints to develop an elastic deformation model—a west-dipping fault following strands of two previously identified faults. The constraints are consistent with a blind rupture with 6.5 ± 0.3 m of dextral slip and 2 ± 0.5 m of reverse slip below 450 m depth. We propose that repeated slip on this fault has raised the Penholoway Marine Terrace >6 m since ∼770 ka. The inferred coseismic slip on the fault in an Mw 7.3 earthquake is consistent with the distribution of damage in 1886.