8.1 on the Richter scale would by about the same level as the San Francisco earthquake of 1906!
Why would the writer of the posted article write about an 1887 earthquake just now? Any particular reason for it?
Nope.
There are some “hidden” faults with no or little recent history of movement. We don’t know much about them and about the possibility of dramatic movement. The 1887 earthquake was well reported at the time but the low population levels mean not much was destroyed. I’ve read at several sources about the Charleston destruction.
aka ‘Great Sonoran Earthquake’
Geologic Survey does not list it as high as an 8.
Correction to my post # 10:
Should be “...relatively sparsely POPULATED area”.
Is legend. Supposedly the quake covered a mine with an iron door. People still trying to find it.
Sounds like it might have been part of a pattern of nervous earth coming less than a year after the summer 1886 Charleston Earthquake. Other nervous earth events in our part of the world for an approximate 30 year period before things quieted down include The major eruptions in 1902 of Mt. Pelee in Martinique, La Soufriere in St. Vincent, Santa Maria in Guatemala and the monster 1911 eruption of Katmai/Novarupta in Alaska. San Francisco 1906 was part of this restless pattern. I think/hope we may be nearing the end of another such cycle which I see starting with Pinatubo in 1981 and perhaps ending with the great Japan earthquake. But perhaps not, and maybe the culmination will be an 8 or plus earthquake in the US or a major volcanic explosion.