SOME FAMOUS EARTHQUAKES 



country which has many times been racked with earth- 

 quakes ; the disturbances being almost as conspicuous for 

 number as in Japan. The areas shaken have not usually 

 been great in extent, but as regards the geological 

 changes and the loss to life by which they have been 

 accompanied, they rank among the greatest in history. 



The shocks of 1783, which cost thirty thousand lives, 

 came without warning on February 5th, and in two 

 minutes threw down the structures in hundreds of cities 

 and villages scattered through Calabria and North-Eastern 

 Sicily. The great central granite formation of Calabria, 

 which was but slightly disturbed by the first shock, was 

 more heavily shaken by those which followed; and it 

 was noted by the early writers on this earthquake that 

 the mountains had been a little raised in comparison 

 with the neighbouring plains at their bases. The fact 

 of the elevation of mountains by earthquakes or some 

 other underground disturbance has been elsewhere noted. 

 On November 19th, 1822, a great earthquake shook the 

 Chilian coast for a distance of twelve hundred miles north 

 and south. The greatest energy was shown about one 

 hundred miles north of Valparaiso, where the coast was 

 found to have risen suddenly from three to five feet for 

 a distance which has never been accurately ascertained, 

 but which is known to have exceeded thirty-five miles. 

 In 1835 and in 1837 similar elevations of the coast were 

 caused by earthquakes at Concepcion, about three hundred 

 miles south of Valparaiso, and at Valdivia, about two 

 hundred miles south of Concepcion. Charles Darwin, 

 in the Voyage of the " Beagle? says : " I have convincing 



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