Mexia-Wortham Earthquake

In the early morning of April 9, 1932, an estimated 4.0 magnitude earthquake occurred near Wortham and Mexia.  Mr. L. E. Jones of the Majestic Hotel in Mexia was up and noted the time of the quake as 4:17 a.m.

In Wortham almost everyone in town was awakened, with many running out of their houses either alarmed or in search of the cause.  Only minor damage was caused by the quake.  At the residence of Mrs. Turner in the southwestern part of town the four top layers of bricks were loosened from the chimney with twenty-four bricks falling to the ground.  A few bricks fell from at least three other chimneys in the southern and southwestern parts of town.  Cracks also developed or were enlarged in a brick-veneered building.  The worst of these was at the northeast side of the house and ran in a zigzag manner from the roof to a window and from the bottom of the window to the concrete baseboard and through the baseboard to the ground.

Only a few people were awakened in Mexia.  Many were more or less alarmed, but no damage was recorded.  R. A. Liddle, who was sleeping in a room on the second story of a well-built, three-story house, stated that he was awakened and felt two tremors.  He stated, “The second came only a few seconds after the first and was barely noticeable.”  He also stated that it sounded as if “the houses were coming apart at all the joints; dishes and stoves rattled.”

A crack cutting diagonally across the concrete highway between Mexia and Wortham approximately along the Wortham fault was observed.  The break was examined by W. A. Reiter on the day following the earthquake, and it appeared at that time to have been recently formed since the edges of the crack were not crumbled due to traffic on the roadway.

In all directions from Mexia and Wortham the tremor died out very rapidly.  However, people in Richland, Streetman, Teague, Groesbeck, Tehuacana, Prairie Hill, Coolidge, Hillsboro, Corsicana, Thornton, and Watts felt the earthquake.

The towns of Wortham and Mexia are located in the Mexia Fault Zone.  This zone consists not of a single fault but includes a complicated series of faults.  The Mexia fault passes into the Wortham fault with the line of faulting continuing northward into the Currie and Richland faults.  The continuation of the fault zone southward is seen in the Groesbeck and Kosse faults.  The Tehuacana fault zone is located west of Mexia and Wortham.  Several minor faults intervene between these major faults.

Evidence suggests that the earthquake was caused by a slight movement along a line near, but west of, Mexia and then northward to Wortham.  This line coincides with the Mexia and Wortham faults and possibly more particularly with the Wortham fault.  Earthquakes are not common in Texas, but according to the Institute of Geophysics website, more than 100 recorded tremors have occurred since 1847. Unlike most earthquakes, which are caused by the relief of tectonic stress along a fault line, the Mexia-Wortham Earthquake was caused by oil field operations along the Mexia and Wortham faults.