SOME FAMOUS EARTHQUAKES 



of four. Until the great earthquake of 1891, the greatest 

 shocks within the memory of living men were those of 

 1854-5. 



The earthquake of October 28th, 1891, shook an area 

 of 243,000 square miles, or more than three-fifths of the 

 entire area of Japan, though the greatest damage was 

 done on the Mino-Owari Plain, a broad expanse of 

 country occupied by rice fields and surrounded by moun- 

 tains. Without the least warning the blow came, and 

 in the first shock 20,000 buildings fell, 7000 people were 

 killed and 17,000 were injured. Innumerable fissures 

 great and small appeared all over the plain, and the 

 houses in the thickly packed villages fell like packs of 

 cards. The plain is one of Japan's great gardens, and 

 supported almost 1000 people to the square mile. 

 Villages were thereabout continuous, and a narrow 

 lane of unusual destruction could be traced through 

 them for twenty miles. After the first shock there were 

 numerous smaller ones, and during the next five months 

 no fewer than 256 shocks were recorded in all. 

 Among the more remarkable effects of the earthquake 

 was the actual shifting of the country. Along a crack 

 many miles in length the plain after the earthquake was 

 some feet lower on one side than on the other. Reser- 

 voirs and swamps were formed, as well as sand pits and 

 mud craters. The most conspicuous effect, however, from 

 a geological standpoint was the shifting and distortion of 

 the strata. 



A few years later, on the 26th and 27th August, 1896, 

 occurred the remarkable Icelandic earthquake, which 



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