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COMPARISOK WITH OTHER GREAT EARTHQUAKES 405 



The glacial oscillations which have resulted from these Yakutat Bay 

 earthquakes, including the initiation of the eight-mile retreat of Muir 

 Glacier and other ice-tongues of Glacier Bay, and the great spasmodic 

 advances of part of the Malaspina and at least six other glaciers in Yaku- 

 tat Bay, find no known parallel among the world^s historical earthquakes. 

 These advances, however, explained by abnormal accession to the glacier 

 reservoirs through earthquake avalanches, must surely find a parallel in 

 other regions of lofty, snow-capped mountains which are still so young 

 as to be frequently faulted and shaken by earthquakes. Future studies 

 of earthquakes in Alaska, the Alps, the Caucasus, the Himalayas, etcetera, 

 will probably reveal such glacial oscillations. 



Eelation of Yakutat Bay Earthquakes to Life 



In contrast with practically all the great earthquakes of historic times, 

 the Yakutat Bay shocks of September, 1899, stand conspicuous for the 

 absence of loss of life and destruction of property which accompanies 

 most seismic disturbances. This was because they took place in an area 

 largely wilderness at that time and because the frontier inhabitants lived 

 in tents, in log cabins, or in low frame buildings. The minimum land 

 area shaken by the great earthquake of September 10 (216,300 square 

 miles, figure 4) contained a population of 20,000 persons or less.^** 



In 1891, during the earthquake in Japan, 7,279 people were killed and 

 17,393 injured, 197,000 buildings were destroyed and 84,000 damaged. 

 Twenty-seven persons lost their lives in the Charleston earthquake of 

 1886, 56 others perishing by cold, exposure, etcetera, out of a city of 

 50,000 to 55,000. Many houses were destroyed, many more damaged, 

 and 13,000 chimneys thrown down. In the first (Assam, 1897) Indian 

 earthquake practically all the buildings in 145,000 square miles were laid 

 in ruins. In the second (Kangra, 1905) Indian earthquake 18,815 lives 

 were lost, and the destruction of property was enormous, the number of 

 buildings destroyed being 112,477. In California,^*^ in 1906, between 

 one and two hundred thousand people were made homeless, but only 709 

 lives were lost directly because of the earthquake. There was tremen- 



1" Twelfth Census of the United States, vol. 1, p. 426, shows 11,668 in the disturbed 

 area In Alaska out of 63,592, the total population of Alaska in 1900. The Atlas of 

 Canada, pp. 4 and 13. shows 8.935 persons in the shaken part of Yukon Territory in 

 1901, the number in the shaken part of British Columbia not being given. Presumably 

 the population was nearly as great In the two previous years, although there it; ay not 

 have been the same number of gold-seeking prospectors In 1899 as In 1900 or 1901. 



"« G. K. Gilbert : Science, N. S., xxlx, 1909, p. 137. 



R. L. Humphrey and Frank Soulg : The San Francisco earthquake and fire. Bulletin 

 324, U. S. Geological Survey, 1907, pp. 61 and 138. 



A. G. McAdle : Catalogue of earthquakes on the Pacific coast, 1897 to 1906, Smith- 

 sonian Miscellaneous Collections, vol. xllx, 1907, p. 47. 



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