November 1, 1886.] 



♦ KNOW^LEDGE ♦ 



^^ILLUSTRATED MAGAZINE ^ 

 teNCE,UTERATURE,& ARTj 



LONDON: NOVEMBER 1, 1886. 



THE EARTHQUAKE IN AMERICA. 



N several respects the great earthquake which, 

 ou August 31, shook the eastern half of the 

 United States, is remarkable beyouJ all others 

 whose records have reached us. It suggest>', 

 though it does not actually demonstrate, the 

 existence of a cause of earthquakes such as 

 had not been before taken into account. It 

 also raises the question whether those seismologists are light 

 who assert that more earthquakes occur now than in former 

 times, the increase in the number of recorded earthquakes 

 Ijeing, they maintain, far greater than can be explained by 

 the increase, great tliough that has doubtless been, in the 

 care with which all signs of subterranean disturbance are 

 lecorded. 



The earthquake of August 31 was preceded by certain 

 signs of widespread subterranean activity which may not, 

 indeed, have been connected witli it, yet require to be 

 recorded as among the indications to which we may have 

 to attend in forming an opinion of the probable cause of the 

 disturbance which presentily followed. 



Eaily on August 31 an artesian well I inches in 

 diameter, which had been bored to a depth of 180 feet, 

 near Belle Plains, la., suddenly burst, and immediately 

 an immense volume of water was forced into the air to a 

 heiglit uf several hundred feet. Tliis increa.sed in size until 

 a stream of water fully IG inches in diametei' (or sixteen 

 times the cioss section of the boring) was formed. The rush 

 of this stream was as irresistible as the action of dynamite. 

 Two " rivers," the Mayor of Eelle Plains announced in a 

 despatch to Chicago ou the afternoon of August 31, " liave 

 been formed by this water-burst, which are running through 

 the town at the rate of twelve miles an hour, and are 

 carrying everything before them." An attempt was made 

 to insert IG-inch boiler iron tubes into the well ; but they 

 were instantly blown out, as if they had been straws, and 

 hurled high into the air. Then the lowaus tried to fill up 

 the opening of the well with .sand and stcne — fifteen cart- 

 loads of stone were enqitied into the well ; but they were 

 instantly blown out and forced upwards, as if by a bur.sting 

 magazine of gunpowder. The same happened when bags of 

 sand were cast into the well. Tlie men of the North- 

 western Riihoad sent a large gang of men — '' navvies," as 

 we should call them — to help to dam the outlet, and they 

 were helped by the county bridge gang. But for more than 

 a day no abatement in the fiow of water was peiceptible. 

 To quote fiom an account in the Chicago i.cwspapers, the 

 rushing rivers formed by the flow of waters continued to 

 wash the channel deeper and wider, while the basin formed 

 by the immense volume of water spread so as to form a wide 

 lake over the lowlands in the vicinity. Until September 3, 

 when a slight diminution was for tlie first time perceptible, 

 it was calculated that the daily flow amounted to five million 

 gallons of water. Ou the 4th it was found 230.>^sible to siuk 



a cone and a tube to regulate the outflow ; but the danger 

 now remains that the whole region from beneath which this 

 subterrauean river burst forth may cave in.* 



It may possibly le that there was no connection between 

 this outburst in Iowa and the earthquake which followed a 

 few hours after, and was felt over a part of this same 

 region, and violently at places much farther away from the 

 centre of disturbance. Still the coincidence is too remarkable 

 to be left unnoticed. 



In like manner there may possibly have been no real 

 connection between the great earthquake and a remarkable 

 disturbance in Montana, which preceded it by three da}s. 

 On Saturday, August 28, at the very time when a great 

 earthquake shook Greece and Italy, the Excelsior Geyser, 

 in the Yellowstone Park, Montana, burst suddenly into 

 violent activity. Foiu- years had passed, duiing which it 

 had been quiescent. Its activity four years ago was 

 remarkable, but short histing. Its recent outbreak was of 

 a somewhat similar character. When we consider the dis- 

 tance of Montana from South Carolina it seems almost as 

 difficult to imagine that there was any connection between 

 the subterranciin distuibances in these places, as to imagine 

 that the Excelsior Geyser was affected by the earthcjuake 

 in Greece. It is indeid diflicult for persons in England to 

 appreciate fiUIy the enormous extent of the United States. 

 Accustomed to see in atlases a map of the States, as there is 

 a map of the German Empire, the idea is conveyed that the 

 States form a country resembling a Europe;in country, 

 instead of the whole of Europe, in e.xtent. From the 

 \ellowstone Park to Charlestcn, S.C , is a distance of 

 about 1,800 miles, or some 200 miles more than the dis- 

 tance separating Athens fiom London. 



Yet it must be remembered that the diiect etlects of the 

 great earthquake at Lisbon were recognised over an even 

 greater distance than this, having afiected not only the 

 northern part of the Scandinavian peninsula, but even the 

 eastern shores of North America. The waves of distm'b- 

 ance which swept aiound South Carolina ou August 31 last 

 were felt in the most stiiking manner as far north as 

 JNIilwaukee on the western shore uf Lake INIichigan ; and 

 we shall probably hear, ere long, of minor disturbances 

 noted at much greater distiinces even than this. 



Of other signs of an approaching subterranean disturb- 

 ance I need say little here. In the States the opinion was 

 commoidy expressed that a certain stillness and heaviness in 

 the air, which many said they had noticed for some time 

 before the earthquake, indicated the disturbed condition of 

 the earth's interior. We know that such an idea is enter- 

 tained in volcanic regions, as by the inhabitants of Naples 

 in I'egard to Vesuvius, and by the inhabitants of Palermo 

 and Messina in legard to Etna. That such atmoi-plieric 

 peculiarities may justly be regarded as premonitions is 

 likely enough, but that they are indications of disturb- 

 ances actually in progress is only less utteily inconceivable 

 than the doctrine gravely propounded in some quarters that 

 the recent earthquake was caused by electrical disturbances, 

 indicated after it had happened by the occuricuce of a 

 magnetic storm in New York (State). It seems very likely 

 that when the underground conditions have for a long time 

 been in a critical condition, tensions having accumulated 



* In passing, I may notice how such cases as these demonstrate 

 the eruptive power which may accompany tlie outflow of fluid matter 

 fiom the earth. It is often assumed by geologists that the outflow 

 of lava in the gieat eiuptioiis of the tertiary era weie quiet, although 

 the forces which pioduced them may have been intensely cneigetic. 

 Certainly auy eiuptive action whicli may have accompanied the 

 outflow lias left no trace of its efi'ects ; but in like manner any one 

 who should visit Belle Plains a year hence would find no trace of 

 the eiuptive, geyser-like energy with which water was flung forth — 

 only the signs of the gieat lake ittelf which the water formed. 



