SOME FAMOUS EARTHQUAKES 



affected a triangular plateau, bordered by high moun- 

 tains, including Mount Hecla and other well-known 

 volcanoes, in the south-western portion of the island. 

 During the shocks the earth's surface was thrown into 

 waves, so that neither man nor cattle could stand. 

 Persons who were lying on the ground near a cliff were 

 by the shock thrown bodily over the edge. A high hill 

 in the plain is described as shaken "like a dog coming 

 out of the water," and a thick mantle of loose soil which 

 had covered it was afterwards found distributed in heaps 

 about its base. The surface of the plain was scarred by 

 open fissures or by rock walls which had been caused by 

 the earth's rising on one side of a fissure. One of the 

 fissures was nine miles and another seven miles in length. 

 The mountains round the plains were riven by clefts, and 

 many landslips occurred. As we have mentioned else- 

 where, a new geyser was formed, throwing up water to an 

 enormous height, but soon spending its early force ; and 

 many geysers and springs were violently disturbed. 



An earthquake of a very different kind occurred the next 

 year in the province of Assam, India (June 12th, 1897). 

 Unlike the Icelandic earthquake, almost the whole 

 damage was here the result of the first shock. Every- 

 thing was destroyed within the first fifteen seconds of the 

 earthquake, and the heavy shocks had all passed before 

 two and a half minutes had elapsed. In this brief space 

 of time an area of 1,750,000 square miles had been 

 shaken and 1 50,000 square miles laid in ruins. A member of 

 the Geological Survey of India, who was in the town of 

 Shillong, says that a rumbling sound like near thunder 



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