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1 Earthquakes in the United States Pre-Reading Discussion/Reading Before you read the passage, work with one or two other students to answer these questions. • Where do earthquakes occur? • What kinds of things happen during an earthquake? Now, read the passage. At 2 AM on December 16, 1811, the earth began to shake terribly in the southern United States. Hunters and farmers from Missouri to Arkansas jumped from their beds in terror. The log cabins they lived in turned to rubble. A distant roar came from the nearby forests. Large trees were torn from the ground as if they were nothing more than weeds. Great cracks appeared in the earth. The cracks were so wide that not even a horse could jump over them. Flashes of light and the burning smell of sulfur caused people to panic. Geysers of sand and dust spurted from the earth. Some people thought this was the end of the world. In reality, it was one of the strongest earthquakes ever to hit the United States. And it was not over. During the next several months, more quakes hit. The most violent came on February 7, 1812. Its strength on the Richter scale, which measures the power of earthquakes, was 8.4 to 8.8. A number that high (over seven) means complete destruction. During this earthquake, the town of New Madrid, Missouri, sank 15 feet. The shock was so powerful that windows rattled in Washington, DC, which was about a thousand miles away. When the earth finally stopped shaking, everything looked different. For a while, the Mississippi River was shaken so badly that water flowed backward. The river overflowed its banks, and thousands of acres of prairie land became swamps. The Mississippi River was never quite the same again. 1 Forces of Nature, Earthquakes Earthquakes do not usually occur in the southern and midwestern parts of the United States. Luckily, very few people lived there in 1811, so few people died. In general, earthquakes are pretty common. There are about one million earth- quakes a year. The rocks beneath the land and sea are always shifting and bumping into each other. There is an earthquake of some sort somewhere on the earth every 30 seconds. Earthquakes can happen anywhere, but they are more likely to happen in certain places, such as along the Pacific Ocean. Such a quake happened in San Francisco, Cali- fornia, in 1906. At 5:12 AM on April 18, 1906, a terrifying sound seemed to come from the deepest part of the earth. Horses became scared and kicked at barn walls. Dogs howled all over the city. It seemed that something truly awful was about to happen to the people of San Francisco. One ship sailing off the coast of California was shaken violently as it rose up in the water and then dropped. The earth rose and fell like the ocean waves. A violent earthquake was underway, felt as far north as Oregon and as far south as Los Angeles. Ancient redwoods, trees that had stood for hundreds of years, were destroyed in seconds. The huge trunks of these trees were shattered. A train racing through the early darkness at Port Reyes, 25 miles north of San Fran- cisco, was hurled from the tracks like a toy. At a dairy farm, an enormous crack opened up in the earth and swallowed a cow—leaving only her tail still visible. The earthquake caused every brick building in Santa Rosa, California, to collapse into piles of debris. At a hospital near San Jose, 100 patients and workers were buried alive. The worst of this early-morning disaster struck the city of San Francisco itself, which was then home to 400,000 people. The city was built on a peninsula, a long piece of land almost completely surrounded by water. The Pacific Ocean was to the west, and San Francisco Bay was to the east. 2 1: Earthquakes in the United States Comprehension and Vocabulary Exercises True/False . Mark each statement as true (T) or false (F) according to information in the reading. _______ 1. Only one earthquake has occurred in the southern United States. _______ 2. Earthquakes are caused by eerie lights and burning sulfur. _______ 3. The stronger an earthquake, the higher its number on the Richter scale. _______ 4. Many earthquakes happen near the Pacific Ocean. _______ 5. San Francisco is near the Pacific Ocean. _______ 6. There are about one million earthquakes in the United States each year. _______ 7. In 1906, there were some trees in California that were more than 100 years old. _______ 8. Animals in San Francisco sensed the earthquake before it struck the city. 3 Forces of Nature, Earthquakes Map Work . Work by yourself or with a partner to mark the locations of these places on the map. Refer to an atlas, a geography book, the Internet, or some other source if you need to. Write the number of each place in the proper location. 1. Los Angeles 2. New Madrid, Missouri 3. Oregon 4. San Francisco 5. the Mississippi River 6. the Pacific Ocean 7. Washington, DC Sentence Essentials. Circle the letter of the answer that best states the basic information in the original sentence. The first one has been done for you as an example. 1. Geysers of sand and dust spurted from the earth. a. Dirt flew into the air. b. Soil filled up the cracks. c. The earthquake could be seen from space. 2. The shock was so powerful that windows rattled in Washington, DC, which was about a thousand miles away. a. The quake caused destruction almost a thousand miles away. b. Wealthy people in Washington showed no concern for quake victims. c. The power of the earthquake was felt nearly a thousand miles away. 4 1: Earthquakes in the United States 3. The river overflowed its banks, and thousands of acres of prairie land became swamps. a. A huge wave traveled down the river. b. Areas near the river were flooded. c. Farms along the river were totally destroyed. 4. Earthquakes can happen anywhere, but they are more likely to happen in certain places, such as along the Pacific Ocean. a. Areas near the Pacific have a lot of earthquakes. b. Most earthquakes occur under the ocean floor. c. Earthquakes near the Pacific are felt worldwide. 5. Ancient redwoods, trees that had stood for hundreds of years, were destroyed in seconds. a. The redwoods were a symbol of the region’s history. b. The old trees had survived many earthquakes in the past. c. Very long lives were ended in a very short time. 6. The worst of this early-morning disaster struck the city of San Francisco, which was then home to 400,000 people. a. The quake first struck San Francisco then struck people’s homes. b. San Francisco, a large city, was the hardest hit. c. Four hundred thousand people died in the quake. 5 Forces of Nature, Earthquakes Vocabulary Groupings . The parentheses ( ) in each sentence contain three choices for completing the sentence. All the choices are vocabulary items used in the reading. Two of the choices can make a correct and meaningful sentence. The other cannot. Cross out the word that does NOT fit well into the sentence. An example has been done for you. Example The deer (leaped/jumped/shook) over the stream. 1. Lava (shattered/erupted/spurted) from the crater of the volcano. 2. During one rainless month, the level of water in the lake (fell /collapsed/dropped) by three feet. 3. The (land/acres/ground) shook so violently we could not stand up. 4. The police closed the highway after the accident (happened/occurred/appeared). 5. A blinding snowstorm (bumped/hit/struck) the city just before the holidays. 6. The house I grew up in (seemed /stood/appeared) much smaller when I walked past it today. 6 1: Earthquakes in the United States Vocabulary Matching . Match one word or phrase from Column A with the best sentence ending from Column B. Use each phrase from Column A only once. Write your choices in the blanks in Column B. The first item has been done for you as an example. Column A Column B A river Dogs howled all over the city. Buildings Cracks in the earth ____________________________________ measure things. Dogs Earthquakes _______________________________ can run within banks. Horses Scales ___________________________ actually occur frequently. Trains Tree trunks _______________________________ can race along tracks. _____________________________ can collapse into rubble. ___________________________________ kick at barn walls. ________________________________________ can shatter. _________________________________________ open up. 7.

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