98 EARTHQUAKES. 



Tuesday, 19th inst,, at 10A. 50m. P. M., after three or four hours of overpowering heat and 

 extreme rarefaction of the air, a horrid noise announced, and preceded by some seconds, an 

 earthquake, the like of which Chile has not experienced since 1730. Its explosion was mani- 

 fested by two powerful concussions, which lasted from two and a half to three minutes ; the 

 second longer than the first continuing some twenty seconds. Total ruin of the city was 

 apprehended ; consternation was general ; but, happily, there have been no other misfortunes 

 than a few persons wounded by the falling of tiles or fragments from broken edifices. 

 According to the most general opinion, the action of the earthquake was a trepidation from 

 N.E. to S.W., as is manifested by the direction of fallen objects, furniture, &c. The earth 

 was in motion all night, and much injury was done to property. On the 20th, at 3h. 8m. A. M., 

 there was a slight tremor without sensible noise ; and thirty-four minutes afterwards a meteor 

 passed across the sky in the same line as the earthquake, that is from W.E. to S.W. Its 

 train was so bright, that, for four seconds, the light was equal to that of advanced dawn. 

 Citizens, generally, deserted their houses ; some flying to the country, others taking refuge in 

 their gardens or patios, where they continued to sleep under light shelter during the week that 

 the agitations were most frequent and violent."* 



General O'Higginsf says the shock occurred at Valparaiso at "ten and three quarters," a 

 time for that city on which all writers agree, say 10A. 45m. As the difference of longitude is 

 3m. 56s., on the supposition that the instant of shock was correctly observed and the time 

 properly determined, the centre of disturbance must have been equidistant from the capital 

 and its port. At the latter, the houses were nearly all unroofed ; many were entirely thrown 

 to the ground, while the thick adobe walls that remained erect were split in all directions. 

 The tower of La Merced church, 60 feet high before the shock, was one of the most remarkable 

 ruins. Its walls, six feet thick, and well built of brick and mortar as high as the belfry, were 

 shivered into large blocks and thrown to the ground. The walls at both ends of the church 

 fell to the north, whilst its longitudinal walls in the same direction, although much damaged, 

 remained, supporting the ridge-roof of timber. The covering of the roof was entirely shaken 

 off, and the whole body of rafters inclined considerably towards the north every house in 

 Valparaiso, not thrown down, leaning in the same direction. On each side of La Merced 

 there were a number of square buttresses, of solid brick-work, six feet square, which stood at 

 a small distance from the walls. Those on the western side were all thrown down ; as were, 

 also, all but two on the eastern side, which last had been twisted in a northeasterly direction, 

 each presenting an angle to the wall. At Quintero, and other places to the northward, the 

 same twisting to the N.E. was observed; the destruction, in all cases, being in proportion to 

 the solidity of the walls, and inversely as the solidity of the formation. Many people were 

 wounded and bruised, though only about 150 lost their lives. During the shock a sea-wave 

 rolled in, nearly twelve feet high ; nor did the surface of the bay reach its accustomed level or 

 quietude for several days. 



Mr. Miers was at Concon, 11 miles N.N.E. from Valparaiso. There the first oscillation was 

 very sudden and violent, the earth heaving up and down in a manner hardly conceivable, 

 cracking timbers, and throwing down everything loose. The great shock continued about 

 two minutes ; then there was a lull of three minutes, when the agitation returned violently 

 for another minute, completing the destruction. With the last, there was a loud rumbling 

 noise like the distant echo of thunder in a mountainous country ; and the heaving of the ground 

 seemed not of horizontal oscillations only, but also of violent uplifting concussions, as if repeated 

 explosions were exerting their force upon the roof of a hollow cavern under foot, threatening to 

 burst open the ground. There was nothing remarkable in the appearance or state of the 

 atmosphere ; the moon and stars shone with their usual resplendence. Severe shocks continued 

 during three quarters of an hour, with intervals between, seldom exceeding five minutes. The 



* Gaceta Miuisterial de Chile, Tom. Ill, No. 64. t Ibid. 



