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NATURE 



lApril T, 1 88 1 



ON THE EARTHQUAKES AT AGRAM IN 



r A T our request Prof. Szibo, Professor of Geology and 

 \_t\. Mineralogy in the University of Budapest, has 

 prepared for the pages of Nature the following account 

 of the recent earthquakes at Agram. This account is 

 a thoroughly reliable one, as it is drawn up from informa- 

 tion obtained from Ur. von Hantken, the Director of the 

 Hungarian Geological Survey, and Mr. Schafarrik (Prof. 

 Szabo's assistant), both of whom were officially deputed 

 to visit the district and inquire into the whole of the facts.] 

 On November 9, iSSo, at 7h. 33m. 53s., a very violent 

 earthquake passed over the south-western quarter of 

 Hungary and aUo Bosnia and Herzegovina. The limits 

 of this large territory are approximately as follows ; — 

 West, the peninsula of Istria and the town of Trieste ; 

 north, Vienna and Godollo (north-east from Budapest) ; 

 east, the flat lands between the Danube and the Theiss ; 

 and south it reached far beyond Serajewo, because the 

 earthquake was felt in this town also very strongly. It 

 is said by some that the earthquake was even observed 

 in Budvveis (in Bohemia) and in Debreczen (eastnorth- 

 east from Budapest). This territory is approximately 

 equal to a circle, the radius of which is forty geographical 

 miles long, and therefore its area is nearly 5000 square 

 miles. From all information received up to the present 

 time it may be asserted that the earthquake was not 

 equally felt over the whole territory, but mostly in the 

 centre of the circle — in the environs of Agram, where the 

 damage occasioned was considerable. 



According to the testimony of trusty witnesses the 

 earthquake began on the day mentioned above with a 

 strong shock in an upward direction, which was accom- 

 pjnied simultaneously with a perceptible and loud sub- 

 terranean noise ; this was followed by a subsidence ; then 

 came a perpendicular sho;k from below ; and lastly 

 came an oscillatory movement of the earth in an east- 

 south-east to west-north-west-direction. This movement, 

 which lasted nearly ten seconds, was so intense that in 

 the town of Agram not only all the larger public build- 

 ings, but with few exceptions every dwelling-house, was 

 damaged more or less. 



One peculiarity of this first shock is that not only were 

 objects of small weight removed out of their original 

 positions, and this was especially the case with objects 

 standing on a flat surface, but it also produced a certain 

 rotatory motion upon them (contrary to the hand of a 

 watch) ; even some trustworthy witnesses affirm that the 

 first shock had a rotatory effect on them. 



Chimneys are the objects which are the most easily 

 damaged by earthquakes, and so in Agram there was 

 scarcely a chimney to be seen after the earthquake which 

 had not been either cracked or entirely ruined. The 

 number of fallen chimneys amounts to nearly a thousand. 

 An enormous amount of damage was also done to the 

 roofs of houses ; one could see from the roof-tiles placed on 

 laths that they had been shaken by the oscillation, and were 

 partially broken and fallen down, especially those which 

 were situated towards the east or west. All this happened 

 in the morning when the streets were mostly crowded 

 with people, and one must be astonished indeed that the 

 great quantity of falling masonry, parts of walls, stone 

 cornices, huge beams of wood, and pieces of broken 

 glasses, &c., did not hurt more people ; altogether only 

 twelve were severely wounded (broken arms, hands, feet, 

 head wounds, &c.), but only in two cases did the injuries 

 prove fatal ; about twenty suffered slight contusions. In 

 the surrounding country three men died, and some suffered 

 from various injuries. 



Among the public buildings and the larger dwelling- 

 houses in Agram not one has actually fallen to ruin, but 

 the number of those houses, whose outward walls were 

 obliged to be supported by long beams on every side, is 



considerable ; much more terrible, however, is the view 

 of destruction inside the buildings ; the mortar from the 

 walls of the rooms is for the greatest part fallen down, 

 and the thinner walls have been shaken so mu:h that 

 some of them are totally fallen to ruin. About twelve 

 buildings were so ruined by the earthquake that it was 

 necessary to forbid their reconstruction, and the Senate 

 of the town found itself compelled to order their entire 

 demolition. Here is the corner house belonging to Mr. 

 Priester, with two storeys facing the Marie- Valerie Street 

 and Jellacsics Square, whose western frontal wall has 

 separated itself from the other parts of the house, and is 

 entirely bent towards the Marie- Valerie Street ; the house 

 of Mrs. Zorgdch in the Petrijani Street is ruined and 

 must be demolished ; the building of the Military Aca- 

 demy in Ujlak has been a real and sid ruin. In the 

 upper part of the town the following edifices are desig- 

 nated to be demoUshed : — Br. C>zegovich's house, the 

 Mednyanszka Barracks, a certain part of the military 

 "General-Commando" building, Sec. The number of 

 those buildings which have been rendered uninhabitable 

 by the earthquake is great, but with great difficulty — by 

 using iron braces — they can be renewed. To these build- 

 ings belong the cathedral, which is erected in the broad 

 square courtyard of the archbishop's palace. In this 

 cathedral the vault of the sanciuary has fallen in and has 

 covered the high altar and the space before it with frag- 

 ments of wall and rubbish ; further, a part of the vault 

 just before the organ and a little to the right of the 

 entrance has fallen down in the centre nave ; in the side 

 nave a very heavy horizontally-placed buttress split, 

 fell down, and broke through the tombs where the 

 coffin of a canon was ; besides these more striking 

 damages the main wall was split in several parts. The 

 archbishop's palace itself has been damaged to such an 

 extent that the archbishop and the canons were obliged 

 to leave their apartments for a long time. In the same 

 manner the Franciscan and St. Mark's Churches were 

 also damaged. One can also add among the others St. 

 Catharine's Church, which has been sadly damaged, as 

 also the edifices of the University and of the " Real- 

 schule," and many other private houses. The high 

 chimneys of the gas-factory and of Orator's brick-kiln 

 were only partially damaged at the upper part. 



After these come those houses which, though they were 

 very greatly damaged, yet the people were not obliged to 

 quit them ; and lastly follows the great number of those 

 buddings which sustained only smaller damages (for 

 instance, little rifts near the windows or along the corners 

 of the walls, through mortar, &c., falling down). The 

 proportion between the number of the edifices which 

 became uninhabitable and had to be demolish?d, in com- 

 parison with those which were damaged in a greater 

 degree and those which were slightly damaged, is about 

 1:1:4. This arithmetical proportion nevertheless can- 

 not at all express the damage that happened, because 

 among the two first categories are the most valuable 

 buildings, viz. the churches, barracks, the largest and 

 newest houses, while the mass of the third category con- 

 sists of small low buildings ; one must attend to the 

 above descriptions because it is impossible to set strict 

 bounds between the single categories, for there were 

 many houses whose ground-floors were totally free from 

 chinks, the first- and second-floors already showed gradu- 

 ally more chinks in the walls, while the third-floor pre- 

 sented a terrible picture of destruction. The damage to 

 edifices caused by earthquakes depends on their solidity, 

 on their height, and on their situation. As regards the 

 solidity, they found that the weaker the walls were, and 

 where iron braces were not applied, the more were the 

 buildings damaged ; as regards the height, on the occa- 

 sion of this earthquake it was observed that the second- 

 floor was more damaged than the first, and the third 

 more than the second ; and finally as to the situation. 



