October 8, 1901 Earthquake: Nicaragua

October 8, 1901, 02:26 UTC, 11 N, 86.5 W, magnitude 7.0. We have little information about this earthquake, which had an epicentre in the Pacific off the coast of Nicaragua. It caused minor damage at a number of unspecified places along the west coast of Nicaragua. At San Juan del Sur a seismic sea wave, about 1.5 m above tide level, washed away loose lumber and other articles, but the earthquake did no other damage. The shock was strongly felt in Managua as well as in the southwest part of Nicaragua, and it was reported from as far south as San Jose in Costa Rica. The rather poor macro seismic information places this earthquake in the Pacific off the coast of southern Nicaragua. Gutenberg located this event east of the Bay of Fonseca on the border of Honduras and Nicaragua at 13.0 N, 87.0 W, but there is no information that the shock was felt there. The earthquake, which was recorded by a Ewing pendulum at San Jose in Costa Rica, was quite well reported by Milne stations, and its position, west of Rivas off the Pacific coast of Nicaragua, is consistent with readings of a variety of phases. The readings alone are not good enough, however, to be able to choose between the two alternative positions without the help of macroseismic information (reference #8015)