The Virginian-Pilot
                             THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Tuesday, June 6, 1995                  TAG: 9506060364
SECTION: LOCAL                    PAGE: B1   EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA 
SOURCE: BY MASON PETERS AND LANE DEGREGORY, STAFF WRITERS 
DATELINE: SALVO                              LENGTH: Medium:   69 lines

DID ISLAND SHAKE? YOU HAD TO BE THERE PEOPLE FELT WHAT MECHANICAL INSTRUMENTS FAIL TO EXPLAIN.

Don't bet your bottom sand dollar that it was a certified quake, but a lot of folks on Hatteras Island swear the earth shook on the Outer Banks last Friday.

Or at least jiggled a little.

``Our instruments show a very small indication that something happened at 11:48 a.m. last Friday,'' Professor Christine Powell, a geology instructor and seismologist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill said Monday.

``But it's just a trace; there's not much to interpret,'' Powell added.

Over the weekend a series of reports came from the Salvo area on Hatteras Island that puzzling tremors had shaken the area. One visitor said he saw a huge circular eddy - ``a mini-maelstrom'' - at the time the tremors were reported.

``These reports came from reputable people that we've known for a long time,'' said Ann Privett, who operates the Sea Hole tackle shop at Salvo with her husband, Russ.

Ann Privett said older residents of Hatteras Island said the shaking had happened before and was caused by ``landslides along the continental shelf.''

At Chapel Hill, Professor Powell added seismological credence to local lore.

``The continental shelf begins to slope steeply when you get a little way off shore and the angle is enough to allow an occasional large underwater slide, a sort of submarine avalanche,'' she said. Powell said that a large slide could cause noticeable effects along the beach.

John Minsch, a geophysicist at U. S. Geological Survey National Earthquake Center in Boulder, Colo., said his instruments had recorded no significant quake signals from the Cape Hatteras area in recent days.

``We get fairly frequent reports about unusual seismic phenomenon from that area,'' said Minsch. ``But they usually turn out to be sonic booms from military aircraft or naval exercises offshore.''

Witnesses who related their experiences at the Sea Hole tackle shop said no aircraft or sonic booms seemed to be associated with the Salvo earthshaking, Ann Privett said.

Her husband gave this report:

``A friend who was staying in a beach cottage nearby said he saw what looked like a giant whirlpool in the ocean at about 9:30 a.m. Friday It was as if someone threw a pebble - well, really, a large rock - in the ocean and the ripples went out in circles around it, churning it up. It wasn't really making waves. But white water was moving all around that center spot. It appeared to be a big funnel in the ocean, about 200 or 300 yards off shore. It lasted two or three hours. My friend chased it down the beach in his truck, watching it move offshore.

``About the same time, well, maybe 10 or 15 minutes later, I heard what sounded like a sonic boom and my whole building shook. I have a steel building on a concrete foundation about 1,500 feet from the beach and the whole thing just rocked for about 10 or 15 seconds. It was the worst earthquake-like shaking I've ever felt. Everything jumped off the shelves. Even the concrete floor was shaking under my feet.

``I've been down here 20 years and I've never seen or heard of anything like it before. It was just weird. Some of the locals said maybe part of the continental shelf fell off and created a mini-avalanche underwater or something. I really don't have an answer.

``A couple more people, locals and tourists, came into the shop throughout the day and asked if we'd seen or felt it. Most people around here seemed to notice it, at least. It really was weird.'' by CNB