April 8, 1860 Earthquake: Anse-A-Veau, Haiti

Taber (1922) (reference #434) places the epicenter near Anse-a-Veau. The shock was due to vertical faulting beneath the Golfe de la Gonave. O'Loughlin and Lander (2003) (ref #1492) report: "At Anse-a-Veau, crevasses sliced across the streets and 124 houses were demolished; at Miragoane, the bridge sank; at Petit Goave, all the houses were abandoned; it was felt at Leogane, Port Salut, St.-Marc, and Jacmel. Ships in the harbor of Les Cayes felt the shock, as did ships at sea. From Acquin and Les Cayes, the tremors crossed l"Asile valley from SSW to NNE. At Port-au-Prince, after the great shock at 1:30 pm that night, the population passed the night outdoors."

Some American newspaper articles also reported deaths (e.g., New York Daily Herald, 1 May 1860), but Haitian newspapers mention only a few injuries (La Feuille de Commerce, 14 April 1860; Le Progres, 12 April 1860) [...] An article in a Cuban newspaper provides a detailed account of felt effects in Santiago de Cuba (Fig. 1a) from E- 03 and E-05 and a few subsequent aftershocks (Diario de la Marina, 18 April 1860; 20 April 1860). Two shocks were reportedly felt at Inagua in the southern Bahamas (New York Daily Herald, 8 May 1860; Fig. 1a) on 8 April [...]. Accounts clearly distinguish two initial large events: a widely felt earthquake on the morning of 8 April 1860 (E-03), followed later that night by a larger event (E-05). (reference #13268)