Citation

Street R, Hoffman D, Kiefer J. Seismol. Res. Lett. 2004; 75(6): 744-746.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2004, Seismological Society of America)

DOI

10.1785/gssrl.75.6.744

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

In their article, Kochkin and Crandell (2004) make two assumptions that have a profound impact on their results. They assume a soil amplification of 1.6 (NEHRP site class D for short-period structures) for St. Louis in 1811-1812, and they assume that the earthquake that caused the damage in St. Louis was the event that occurred at approximately 2:15 am local time on 16 December 1811.

In 1811, the population of St. Louis is estimated to have been 1,200, and the settlement covered an area of about 7.6 square miles bordered by the Mississippi River to the east, present-day Broadway to the west, present-day Franklin Avenue to the north, and Mill Creek to the south. In other words, in 1811 St. Louis was a small settlement that occupied the area that is now the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial Park. Houses were built of stone, timber post, or wood frame, typically one-story in height with a loft above and a porch on one or more sides (http://sttouis.missouri.org/heritage/History69/).

Language: en