Morris Sun
Tuesday, June 8, 1993

Memories of 1975 Quake

Friday night's earthquake in Morris brought back memories of the 1975 quake. That one occurred at 9:55 a.m., Wednesday, July 9, 1975.

According to reports in the July 10, 1975 Tribune and July 15, 1975 Sun, that quake measured between 4.6 and 5.0 on the Richter Scale at the National Earthquake Center in Golden, CO.

Damage in the Morris area was confined to cracked plaster, items falling off shelves and pictures dropping off walls. A spokesperson with the U.S. Geological Survey in Golden, CO said that had the earthquake occurred in a densely populated area with many buildings, there would have been considerably more damage.

A team from the Unites States Geological Survey was in Morris by the next day, to set up seismographs in the hope of measuring aftershocks.

Until that time, the Morris area had had little history of seismic activity.

The epicenter of the 1975 quake was calculated to be 6 to 10 miles west, and 2 to 3 miles south of Morris.

The quake 18 years ago was only the seventh reported in Minnesota. It was felt in an area of approximately 60,000 miles -- as far away as Sioux Falls, SD; Sioux City, IA; and the Fargo-Moorhead area.

Other quakes in the state were reported in Alexandria in 1950, Detroit Lakes in 1939, Bowstring in 1928, Staples in 1917, LeSueur between 1865 and 1870, and Long Prairie in 1860. The Staples earthquake, the only other one recorded on a Richter Scale, measured 6.0.

The earthquake of 1975 was recorded on a homemade seismograph by Dennis Myers, then manager of the A&W Drive-in in Morris.

Myers had built a seismograph when he was stationed with the Navy in California. He brought it with him to Morris when he was discharged early in 1975.

The machine -- a coffee can for a drum, powered by the motor of a clock, with a 19 cent pen to record ground shock intensity -- showed a reading for the quake of 4.7.