Historic Earthquakes

Eastern Nebraska
1877 11 15 17:45 UTC
Magnitude 5.1
Intensity VII

Largest Earthquake in Nebraska

This is the largest earthquake known to have originated in Nebraska. Its proposed epicenter lies on the western flank of the Keweenawan mafic belt. Damage was most severe at Columbus, in Platte County, northwest of the epicenter, where the 30-second shock split the courthouse walls in nine places and damaged the schoolhouse walls. Two severe shocks about 350 kilometers west of Lincoln, at North Platte, cracked walls and overturned printing cases. About 200 kilometers north of Lincoln, at Sioux City, Iowa, a high school sustained cracks in a wall. Felt over all or parts of Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, South Dakota, and Wisconsin.

See also the earthquake on 1964 March 28.

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.