Knowledofe. 



With which is incorporated Hardwicke's Science Gossip, and the Illustrated Scientific News. 



A Monthly Record of Science. 



Conducted by Wilfred Mark Wchh, F.L.S., and E. S. Grew. M.A. 

 AUGUST, 1912. 



THE INDIAN EARTHQUAKE OF 1905. 



Bv CHARLES DAXISON. S( .1)., l-.G.S. 



Twice within eight _\-ears the Indian Unii)in 

 been visited by a destructive earthquake. On 

 12th, 1897, one of the greatest disturbances of nn 

 times, if not of all time, occurred in Assam 

 Northern Bengal. The 

 shock was felt over an 

 area half the size of 

 Europe. Within a district 

 twice as large as Great 

 Britain, buildings were 

 seriously damaged. In 

 one that equalled the 

 whole of Scotland, no 

 house of brick or stone 

 could withstand the vio- 

 lence of the shock. Even 

 the form of the earth's 

 crust was changed. Yet 

 the loss of life was small 

 — the total number of 

 deaths was less than two 

 thousand — for the earth- 

 quake occurred late in 

 the afternoon, when the 

 people generally were at 

 work in the open air. 



The more recent earth- 

 quake, which took place 

 on April 4th, 1905, orig- 

 inated in the Kangra 

 district of the north- 

 western Himalayas. The 

 area affected by it differed 

 but little in magnitude 

 from that disturbed in 

 1897, but the shock was 

 Houses were damaged 



far inferior in strength, 

 over a district onlv a 



has little more than half the si/:e of Yorkshire, complete 

 |une destruction prevailed over an area not much larger 

 dern than the county of Rutland. The earthquake, 

 and however, occurred shortly after six in the morning, 



before the general hour of 

 rising, and consequently 

 in the central districts the 

 loss of life was serious. 

 As the number of persons 

 killed was more than 

 eighteen thousand, the 

 Kangra earthquake, though 

 overshadowed by the 

 catastrophe of Messina, 

 must be regarded as one 

 of the great disasters of 

 the world. 



W'c are indebted to Mr. 

 C. S. Middlemiss, superin- 

 tendent of the Geological 

 Survey of India, for a 

 detailed, if somewhat 

 belated, account of this 

 important shock. As soon 

 as the extent of the dis- 

 aster was known — and 

 two days elapsed before 

 it was fully realised — 

 telegraphic instructions 

 were issued to all officials 

 in the area concerned to 

 record in writing the exact 

 time and other details of 

 the shock. Letters were 

 sent to the principal 

 newspapers all o\cr India, and forms of questions 

 were distributed ainong the political officers and 



Figure 325. 

 The Area disturbed by the Earthijuake. 



