Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VI.djvu/369

EARTHQUAKE 361 threw down the principal portion of the city. The sea retired, leaving the bar dry, and re- turned in a minute as a great wave or breaker 50 ft. or more in height. It is believed that 60,000 persons perished in the space of six min- utes. The part of the city that was perma- nently engulfed beneath the waters of the bay was covered to the depth of 600 ft. The por- tion of the earth that was shaken by this earth- quake was estimated by Humboldt as equal to four times the extent of Europe ; but many of the reports and estimates in reference to it have been greatly exaggerated, and from more exact considerations Reclus states that prob- ably an area equal to six times that of France was sensibly disturbed. The shock was felt in the Alps and on the coast of Sweden; in Bohemia the warm springs of Teplitz dis- appeared for a time, and again burst forth, deluging the region with ochre-stained waters. Many towns were destroyed in northern Af- rica. The waves of shock reached Scotland, probably passing under it, causing tempo- rary changes in the waters of Loch Lomond, which suddenly rose more than two feet and then fell to below their usual level. Almost if not quite simultaneously there began the great eruption of the volcano of Kotluggia in Iceland. The velocity of propagation of the wave of shock was about 2,000 ft. per sec- ond, and its origin was probably under the ocean some distance west of Portugal. The great sea wave that swept over the coast of Portugal was nearly 60 ft. high at Cadiz, and extended to Madeira, and possibly to the West Indies. The numerous other earthquakes and earthquake waves experienced during the same month throughout Europe and America may very probably have had some connection with that at Lisbon, but are not to be con- founded with the shock of Nov. 1. In Syria, the Biblical records preserve notices of earth- quakes in the reign of Ahab, about 900 B. C., and again in the reign of Uzziah, about 800. The earthquake that devastated Judea at the time of the battle of Actium, 31 B. 0., was such as according to Josephus had never hap- pened before, and caused the death of 10,000 persons. That which occurred at the crucifix- ion was accompanied by a darkness very simi- lar to that recorded Jan. 22, 1835, in Cen- tral America, on the occasion of the erup- tion of the volcano Coseguina and the atten- dant earthquake. The ancient city of Anti- och has been peculiarly visited from time im- memorial. Besides many other instances, the following may be especially noted : The city was almost destroyed A. D. 115, at the time of the visit of the emperor Trajan, who was him- self 'hurt. In 458 it was again visited, and in 526 occurred the most disastrous one of which any record has been preserved ; Gibbon states that 250,000 persons are said to have perished at this time. Sixty years later, in 587, an earth- quake destroyed 30,000 persons. The last oc- curred there in April, 1872. In India, by the earthquake of 1819, a tract of 2,000 sq. m. of country near the mouth of the Indus was sub- merged, and a neighboring region elevated into a mound. The great earthquake of Jan. 10, 1869, has been studied by Oldham with results of great value. The origin of the shock was a point under Asaloo, somewhat deeper down than in the Neapolitan earthquake as investigated by Mallet. Eruptions of sand and hot water took place through the fissures, forming cones. The entire lower valley of the Ganges was em- braced in the field of disturbance, and the shock was felt quite decidedly at Calcutta. In mid ocean there are certain regions frequently visited by earthquakes, if we may rely on the testimony of those navigating them. Among these may be specially designated the portion of the Atlantic ocean near the equator and about half way between Guinea and Brazil. In the United States, in 1811, occurred the famous earthquake of New Madrid in Missouri, in the valley of the Mississippi river. Humboldt remarks that it presents one of the few ex- amples of the incessant quaking of the ground for several successive months far from any vol- cano. Over an extent of country stretching for 300 miles southward from the mouth of the Ohio river the ground rose and sank in great undulations, and lakes were formed and were again drained. The surface burst open in fis- sures that generally trended N. E. and S. W., and were sometimes more than half a mile long ; from these fissures mud and water were often thrown as high as the tops of the trees. During the continuance of these convulsions the inhabitants distinguished two classes of movements, the vertical and the horizontal; the latter were regarded as far more desolating than the former. The disturbances continued over what has since been called "the sunk country" until March 26, 1812, when they ceased coincidently with, the great earthquake of Caracas. The most severe earthquake that has been recorded in the middle and eastern states was that of Nov. 18, 1755. The shock then felt in New England was undoubtedly a wave promulgated from either the same centre whence emanated the tremendous disturbance that had destroyed Lisbon on the first day of the month, or from a centre whose activity had been stimulated by the continual quakings that then prevailed from Iceland to the Medi- terranean. This earthquake of the 18th began in Massachusetts with a roaring noise like that of thunder; after a minute's continuance of this there came the first severe shock with a swell like that of a long rolling sea a swell so great that men in the open fields ran to seize something by which to hold on lest they should be thrown down. After two or three lesser shocks there came the most violent of all, pro- ducing a quick horizontal tremor with sudden jerks and wrenches ; this continued two min- utes, and after a slight revival died away. Numerous other shocks followed in the course of a month. In Boston the main shock threw