G4 Reports on the state of science* 



A. A: 



1888 1 Kov. 28. Tashkent, Khojent and places east of Tashkent. 

 1888 Nov. 29. Verny and Kopal. I 

 1888 Dec. 3. Vefny. I 



A List of Destructive Earthquakes in Iceland. 1 



Abstracted by 0. A. Gosch, Esq., from ' Landskjalftar i Island!, ' 

 by Thorvald Thoroddsen, Copenhagen, 1899-1905. 



The work from which the following abstract has been made was 

 issued by the Icelandic Literary Society in two parts, of which the first, 

 pp. 1-200, was published in 1899; the second, pp. 201-266, in 1905. 



The relative ' destructivity ' is indicated by the numerals I, II, and 

 III, see p. 57. 



Earthquakes in Iceland appear to be closely connected with local 

 volcanic activity, and it is therefore convenient to group them accord- 

 ing to the volcanic areas in which they originate, as Mr. Thoroddsen 

 has done. Occasionally, however, an earthquake extends from one area 

 to another, so that by this arrangement the same seismic disturb- 

 ance may have to be mentioned in more than one list. The prin- 

 cipal earthquake area in Iceland is that of the Sudurland, the southern 

 part of the island, and particularly the Sudurland underland, 2 which 

 means the lowlands in that part of Iceland. This district lies between 

 the central plateau and the south coast, and is bounded to the east by the 

 mountains about the Myrdals jokull, near the southernmost point of 

 the island ; and to the west by a ridge, which on the western side slopes 

 down to the Faxa Bay (Paxa fioi or Faxa fjordr). It is an alluvial 

 plain, wbich fills up a prehistoric bay of the sea, in which isolated 

 rocks and mountains represent ancient islands. The extent is given 

 by Mr. Thoroddsen as ' 70 sq. milur,' or about 1,300 English square 

 miles. The principal seat of volcanic activity here is Hekla, at the 

 north-east corner of the district. The localities mentioned in Mr. 

 Thoroddsen's list of earthquakes in the Sudurland are situated partly 

 in Arnessysla, partly in Eangarsysla; ' sysla ' being the appellation lor 

 certain administrative divisions. Arnessysla is the westernmost, the 

 furthest from Hekla, and comprises the following subdivisions frequently 

 mentioned — viz., Olfus, the westernmost, west of the river Olfusd, 

 next Floi between the sea and the lower courses of Olfusd and Thjorsd; 

 to the north of these, inland, are Grimsnes Thingvallasveit, Bishops- 

 tungur, Skeid, and, finally, reaching up to the edge of the highland 

 ice, the so-called Hreppar — viz., Eystrihreppur or Gnupverjahreppur 

 and Hrunamannahreppur or Ytrihreppur. The river Thjorsd divides 



1 A second abstract of this work has been received from the Hon. S Allan John- 

 stone, British Minister in Denmark. Although in both cases these registers represent 

 the selection by independent workers of earthquakes which were destructive, the one 

 confirms the other. 



2 In Mr. Thoroddsen's paper the names are mostly given in the Dative case, 

 governed by a ; but in this abstract they are treated as would be English names 

 and not declined. , 



