| Name | Age | Sex | Injuries | Injured areas |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cowan, Dave | Not recorded | Male | Not recorded | Not recorded |
On Memorial Day weekend the Mother Lode Grotto conducted a trip to Church Cave in Kings Canyon National Park in California. The group included Dave Cowan, Paul Greaves, Jack Espinal, Bob Pine and Eric Popoff. During their trip there occurred a series of earthquakes with an epicenter only 30 miles from the cave.
The first shock (6.0, Richter scale) occurred at 9:30 a.m. as they left the Boyden Cave parking lot to hike to the cave. At 9:50 there was another (Richter 5.7) as they hiked up the canyon. Shortly after that they entered the cave.
At 12:45 p.m. they were near the Torture Chamber. Espinal was down-climbing a wall, Greaves and Cowan were waiting to descend, Popoff was at the bottom of a 30 foot chimney while Pine was descending the tight chimney. At that point came another Richter 6.0 quake. The motion imparted to the walls nearly caused Espinal to be shaken from his hold. Pine, in the crevice, could feel the walls moving, giving him a massage. A few pebbles rattled down the chimney past him. A great, deep, disconcerting, humming "noise" occurred. When the shock died out, they collected themselves and decided to leave.
As they headed for the entrance there occurred a series of smaller after-shocks, each producing the deep humming noise which they found most unnerving. At 1:36 p.m. they were outside and another shock, of Richter 5.7 was felt.
Despite the major proportion of the quake, nothing really happened in the cave. There was no collapse nor apparent instability created. Of course, Church Cave is in a very massive marble deposit with relatively few structural features remaining (joints, open bedding planes) so the benevolence of a quake in this cave might be quite the opposite in another.
A series of earthquakes took place near to an occupied cave. No incident.