The Madness From the Sea: Part 4 - Earthquake!

S T Joshi * indicates that the earthquake was inspired by the 6.7 Charlevoix-Kamouraska (St. Lawrence) 28 February 1925 event felt throughout New England. HPL felt it in New York, and stated, "house shakes, 9 P.M.". The quake, while violently intense, caused no deaths and luckily minor damages.

*[Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories, p. 395 note 16].

One never knows what will excite Lovecraft and for such a seismic rarity, Lovecraft is quiet. Did it incubate until September 1926?

Chrispy will go out on a limb and say that perhaps the Santa Barbara Earthquake of 1925 might have added fuel to the word-fare. Here are vivid images of that 6.3, 6:44 AM (local time) incident. This one did make the news!