Earthquake 

 Earthquakes 



SCIENTIFIC SIDE-LIGHTS 



194 



violent shocks to which it was subjected. In 

 the central parts of the disturbed region 

 the earth opened so widely as to swallow up 

 large houses. In Cannamaria many build- 

 ings were " completely engulfed in one 

 chasm/' insomuch that not a trace of them 

 was ever seen afterward. So violently did 

 these chasms close their yawning jaws, that 

 afterward, when excavations were made for 

 the recovery of valuables, the workmen 

 found the contents of houses crushed into 

 a compact mass with detached portions of 

 masonry. In some instances persons were 

 engulfed by one shock and thrown out again 

 alive by the following one. PROCTOR Notes 

 on Earthquakes, p. 3. (Hum., 1887.) 



953. EARTHQUAKE DESOLATING 

 WIDE D I S T R I C T Destruction, Sudden, 

 Swift, and without Warning Man Power- 

 less in Grasp of Elemental Forces. One of 

 the most remarkable earthquakes ever ex- 

 perienced was that which overthrew Rio- 

 bamba on February 4, 1797. A district 120 

 miles long and 60 broad was shaken by an 

 undulatory motion which lasted for four 

 minutes, and a far wider district felt the 

 effects of the disturbance. Within the space 

 first named, in which the movement was 

 more energetic, every town and village was 

 leveled to the ground; and many places 

 were buried under large masses flung down 

 from the surrounding mountains. Among 

 these was the flourishing town of Riobamba. 

 Preceded and accompanied by no warn- 

 ing noises whatever, the terrific concussion 

 in a few moments effected the complete deso- 

 lation of the unhappy district. The earth- 

 quake was a singular combination of per- 

 pendicular, horizontal, and rotary vibra- 

 tions. So violent was the perpendicular, or 

 as it may be termed the explosive, move- 

 ment, that hundreds of the wretched in- 

 habitants were flung upon the hill La Culla, 

 several hundred feet high, on the further 

 side of the small river Lican. Then came a 

 horizontal movement, so rapidly succeeding 

 the other that in many instances the furni- 

 ture of one house was found beneath the 

 ruins of another. In some cases property 

 was removed so far from its original place, 

 that disputes arose among the survivors of 

 the catastrophe, and the Audiencia, or court 

 of justice, was for some time occupied in ad- 

 justing these difficulties. Not less remark- 

 able were the effects of circular or rotary 

 concussions. Walls beyond the town were 

 twisted round without being flung down; 

 rows of trees which had been parallel were 

 deflected in the most remarkable manner; 

 and the direction of the ridges of fields cov- 

 ered with various kinds of grain was ob- 

 served to be altered by the effects of the 

 earthquake. PROCTOR Notes on Earth- 

 quakes, p. 4. (Hum., 1887.) 



954. EARTHQUAKE IN THE MIS- 

 SISSIPPI VALLEY Waves Traversing the 

 Earth-crust Chasms Opening Far and Wide 

 South Carolina and New Madrid, Mis- 



souri, 1811-12. Previous to the destruction 

 of La Guayra and Caracas, in 1812, earth- 

 quakes were felt in South Carolina; and 

 the shocks continued till those cities were 

 destroyed. The valley also of the Missis- 

 sippi, from the village of New Madrid to the 

 mouth of the Ohio in one direction, and to 

 the St. Francis in another, was convulsed in 

 such a degree as to create new lakes and 

 islands. It has been remarked by Humboldt 

 in his " Cosmos," that the earthquake of 

 New Madrid presents one of the few ex- 

 amples on record of the incessant quaking of 

 the ground for several successive months far 

 from any volcano. Flint, the geographer, 

 who visited the country seven years after the 

 event, informs us that a tract of many 

 miles in extent, near the Little Prairie, be- 

 came covered with water three or four feet 

 deep; and when the water disappeared a 

 stratum of sand was left in its place. Large 

 lakes of twenty miles in extent were formed 

 in the course of an hour, and others were 

 drained. The graveyard at New Madrid 

 was precipitated into the bed of the Mis- 

 sissippi; and it is stated that the ground 

 whereon the town is built, and the river- 

 bank for fifteen miles above, sank eight feet 

 below their former level. The neighboring 

 forest presented for some years afterwards 

 " a singular scene of confusion ; the trees 

 standing inclined in every direction, and 

 many having their trunks and branches 

 broken." 



The inhabitants relate that the earth rose 

 in great undulations; and when these 

 reached a certain fearful height, the soil 

 burst, and vast volumes of water, sand, and 

 pit-coal were discharged as high as the tops 

 of the trees. Flint saw hundreds of these 

 deep chasms remaining in an alluvial soil, 

 seven years after. The people in the coun- 

 try, altho inexperienced in such convulsions, 

 had remarked that the chasms in the earth 

 were in a direction from southwest to north- 

 east; and they accordingly felled the tallest 

 trees, and laying them at right angles to the 

 chasms, stationed themselves upon them. 

 By this invention, when chasms opened more 

 than once under these trees, several persons 

 were prevented from being swallowed up. 

 At one period during this earthquake, the 

 ground not far below New Madrid swelled 

 up so as to arrest the Mississippi in its 

 course, and to cause a temporary reflux of 

 its waves. The motion of some of the shocks 

 is described as having been horizontal, and 

 of others perpendicular; and the vertical 

 movement is said to have been much less 

 desolating than the horizontal. LYELL 

 Principles of Geology, bk. ii, ch. 27, p. 466. 

 (A., 1854.) 



955. EARTHQUAKE SHAKES MAN'S 

 CONFIDENCE IN THE ORDER OF NA- 

 TURE " The Solid Earth" Proved a Delusion. 

 The deep and peculiar impression left on 

 the mind by the first earthquake which we 

 experience ... is not, in my opinion, 

 the result of a recollection of those fearful 



