THE GREAT ERUPTION OF SAKURA-JIMA IN 1914. 59 



•rAx. iiTH, Qii the nth, 3.41 a.m.,^' a weak local earthquake 



Morning * 



(scale 1)'^ was felt in Kagoshima, which inaugurated the sub- 

 sequent convulsions."'^ Henceforward, feeble shocks occurred four 

 times an hour on an average till 9'' 51' 45" a.m. when a strong 

 one (scale 5) shook the city. The direction of the earthquake 

 vibration was from S.S.E. to N.N.W., or S.E. to N.W., as recorded 

 on a Gray-Mihie-Ewing seismograph in the Meteorological Obser- 

 vatory in the city, situated on a hill-top (120 m.) of a pumice bed 

 90 m. thick. If the seismometer had been posted on solid rock 

 in a region of flat topography the writer conjectures the direction 

 of vibration would have been somewhat different from that actually 

 recorded as above stated. Just at this time a boy at Nojiri in 

 8akura-jima was hurt on the head by flying stones (explosion ?). 



About four hours before the earthquake of 5.58 a.m. (scale 2), 

 a slump*^ of considerable magnitude happened at the doubly pointed 

 ' scissor-rock ' or Iiasami (Geologic Map) on the western crater- 

 margin of Mt. Sakura-jima, which slid down toward the point 

 The where vents opened later. The slip caused mighty 



Avalanche 



OF THE avalanches of debris and dust clouds which might Have 



SCLSSOE- 



EocK been easily mistaken for an explosion. The fresh, rusty- 



1) The following is chiefly an extract from ' Report Meteor. Station Kagoshima.' Jour. 

 Soc. Meteor. Japan, No. 2, Tokyo, 1914. As to the numerical tlata refer to the original Report 

 (see also Summary). My creditable informant is a fisherman who passed the restless night 

 of the 11th -with the vilLagers at Nojiri in Salaira-jima. He fled for his life at the explosion 

 of the 12th at 10.5 a.m. on his lioat to Tani-yama on the Kagoshima side. Then, rowing 

 northwards along the city, met on tlie way homeward the great earthqiiake at 6.29 p.m. on a 

 turbulent sea, and finally reached Fulmyama in safety the next morning. It is this resolute 

 man who offered his services to guide the -writer on his trip on the 18th January along the 

 coast of Ôsumi as far as Fumoto near the lava end. He knows the details of the catastrophe 

 from the very beginning to the end. 



2) The scale is the one adO]jted liy oiar seismologists and current in use among us. 



3) This earthquake startled the whole population of the city from sound sleei) ; from then 

 on they were kept awake throughout the early morning by the ever-increasing tremblings. 



4) The dust-clouds formed from avalanches are not easily distinguishable from the ash- 

 clouds of real explosions unless actually observed from proximity. 



