Zion Canyon Earthquake (September 2, 1992)

At 4:26 a.m., on the morning of September 2, 1992, an earthquake (magnitude 5.8) centered 8 miles southeast of St. George was the cause of a large landslide which blocked the South entrance of Zion National Park. This landslide took out power lines, phone lines, buckled the road, and destroyed three homes and two water tanks when the slope they were built on dropped 98 feet. The landslide continued to move for nine hours after the initial shaking, which was intense. Our motor home was really rocking! This is our home video of the damage caused by this quake.

We were asleep in the Watchman campground on the night this event occurred. At first I wondered if it was the wind that was causing the motor home to rock back and forth so violently, then I noticed the deep, low rumble that seemed to come from everywhere. The rumbling and shaking seemed to last forever, though I'm sure is was only several seconds in duration. After the shaking and rumbling subsided, there were the sharp sounds of boulders breaking loose and bouncing off of the rocks, echoing all around the entrance to the canyon. I silently hoped that one of these boulders wouldn't land on us! Thankfully, it didn't.

The really amazing thing about this event, from our perspective, is that, since we had a motor home, we could stick around, while most everyone else in the park had to leave the park through the East entrance, especially those in the lodges, as they had no electrical power, no phones, and no cooked food. We had fuel, a generator, food, water, everything we needed. Also, anyone staying in Springdale could not enter the park because the road to the South entrance was blocked, so most of them left. After the first morning, the place was pretty much deserted. Not many folks stuck around.

We were the first ones up the Angel's Landing hike the morning after the earthquake. We made it up early and didn't run into anyone until we were almost back down the trail when we passed a couple park rangers who were just heading up the trail to inspect the chains. They seemed quite shocked to see us. It was kind of fun being able to tell them, yeah, the chains were fine and no one else had been up there yet. I don't think they believed us, or at least I think they figured they needed to check it out for themselves. Anyway, to have Zion National Park practically to yourself for a few days is never, ever heard of, but that was our rare privilege. It was definitely a trip I'll never forget.

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• adventure
• events
• zion
• national
• park
• canyon
• earthquake
• damage
• springdale
• utah
• 1992
• quake
• preparedness
• lds
• mormon

[osmiolos]

what was the magnitude and where was the epicenter?

[tboneturner]

Magnitude: 5.8

Epicenter:  37°04'48.00" N (Latitude)

-113°29'12.00" W (Longitude)

[cokeakoda123]

this happened 9-2-92 creepy! i was lil kid driving thru nebraska on our way to STG!

[reignman40boozer5]

Wow nice rare footage. I was only five and slept right threw it. I just remember the next day at school they were teaching us all the earthquake drill stuff like getting under the tables.

[UnwindOutdoors]

I had a somewhat similar experience at Zions in 1996 with a rock slide that wasn't brought on by an earthquake but it dammed up the river. We were sitting around the fire and the camp ranger came by and told us to pack our stuff and evacuate and then said "the heck with you--I'm getting out of here" and he ran off.

[kendrickgordon07]

i was born that day sep. 2 92'

[billieder]

I was living in St.George, UT and attending Snows Canyon Middle School when I was rudely awakened at 04:26 on 09/02/92 .....and we STILL had to go to school that day!! lol.