The Sun.
London, England, 1841-03-01 00:00:00

MORNIN

MOUNT ARARAT•

AN OFFICIAL ACCOUNT OF THE GREATMAR
EARTHQUAKE, DRAWN UP BY JO
VOSKOBOINIKOF, OF THE IMPERIAL RUS-
SIAN ENGINEERS.
ITO F rn the St. Petersburgh Gazette.)
The earthquake, which changed in a few mo-
ments the entire aspect of the country in the neigh-
bourhood of Mount Ararat, commenced on the
20th of June (Russian, or old style), 1840, at
about 45 minutes after 6 in the evening. Re-
peated, but intermittent, shocks, which seemed to
come from the mountain, gave to the earth a move-
ment resembling waves, which continued for about
two minutes. The first four and most formidable
Shocks, which were accompanied by a subterraneous
sound, proceeding in the direction of east-north-
east, h ave left on the summits of hills and bottoms
of valleys within the range of the agitation, traces
which will not soon disappear, and which the eye
of the scientific observer will recognize after many
ages shall nave passed away.
It was at the same time observed, that numerous
rents or fissures took place on the banks of the
Araxes and the Karassu, from the source of the
latter to its confluence with the Arpatchai, on all
tire spots where the banks of those rivers are some-
'what elevated. These fissures, which were parallel
to the course of the streams, ploughed the earth to
the distance of a verst from the beds of the rivers,
and, in accordance with the movement given to thesoil
by the shocks, they were seen every moment to ceien
and shut. There also occurred a great number of vio-
lent explosions from the bottoms of holes like little
craters, which opening and shutting in the same
Way as fissures, spouted out torrents of water, and
cast up immense quantities of pebbles and gravel.
The waters of the Araxes were so violently agitated,
that they rose over both banks, now causing inun-
dation, then sinking again into the centre of the
bed, which thus appeared concave. According to
the accounts of the people of the country, several
parts of the river became dry, while at other parts
the body of the stream rose to a great height, mak-
ing a noise like the sound of boiling water. The
local authorities took care to verify these facts,
which were rel t'el by a number of eye-witnesses,
• and several circumstances leave no doubt of the
correctness of their statements. At -he end of Au-
gust there were still to be seen fissures here and I
th.re in the bed of the river, which might have
absorbed the water, while it might have been thrown
up from others.
During these awful moments terror and desola-
tion reigned everywhere to a great distance around
Mount Ararat. The Persian town of Maku, and
Baiazeth, the chief town of a Turkish Pachalic,
also suffered from the earthquake. Its successive
shocks convulsed in a few minutes the earth as far as
Shusa and Tabris on the one side, and to Tiflis on
the other. But its ravages extended chiefly over
the Russian territory. The ancient and venerable
moan:tient of St. James, and the village of Acorhi,
with its 200 houses and 1,000 inhabitants, situated
on the sk its t f Mount Masis, at the foot of the
Great Ararat,, were entirely destroyed by the im-
mense masses of rock which were detached from the
summit of the mountain, and by the colossal gla-
ciers accumulated during an incalculable series of
flees in that ree,ion of eternal' snow, which those
rocks brought with them in their descent.
In the cantons of Erivan, Sharur, Nakhichevan,
and Orduliat, neatly all the houses have been en-
tirely destroyed. In Nakhichevan two Armenian
churches, fire mosques, 779 houses, and 25 shops
were quite ruined. In the district of the same
name, including the canton of Ordubat, the num-
ber of edifices destroyed has been found to amount
to 2,436 houses, one church, two mosques, and 17
mills, leaving cut of the account 1,095 houses, nine
churches, five mosques, and 15 mills, which were
more or less seriously damaged. In the canton of
Sharur the earthquake threw down 3,135 houses,
and 75 mills. In the same canton, on the left of
the river Araxes, where its banks are somewhat
`"'avated, vated, land-slips took place, which carried away
sc(iveral villages, and the adjoining corn-fields. Most
fottunately re catastrophe occurred before sunset,
which is doubtless the cause that the number of
victims, the inhabitants of Acorhi excepted, was
less considerable than might have been expected.
With that exception, the number is limited to
merely 49 individuals in the two districts of Erivan
and Nakhichevan, exclusive of seventeen seriously
wounded.
The influence of the earthquake on all the wells
within the two districts mentioned was very remark-
able. In tire canton of Nakhichevan upwards of
30 springs were dried up for some time ; some con-
tinued even several days after the catastrophe to yield
only thick and whitish-coloured water ; others, on
the contrary, became more abundant than they had
-'l3reviously been ; and in the vicinity of several of
the latter new springs made their appearance. Thus
the volume of water from the springs of Karassu
and Chapan, near the village of Sadarak, is more
than double what it was ; and a new current of
water, which first issued forth at the time of the
earthquake, still flows from a cleft in Mount Gindil.
At Karagasanlu, a poor village situate at the
confluence of the rivers Arpatchar and Araxes, the
earthquake was observed in all its terrific grandeur.
Terrified by the' first shock, and stunned by a noise
like the rolling of thunder, the inhabitants had no
sooner raised their eyes to the summit of the Ararat,
and beheld the direction of the detached masses of
rock, than a second shock overthrew their clay la's.
The whole village disappeared amidst an immense
cloud of dust ; at the same time the earth alternately
opened and closed around them, and numerous
columns of water spouting up in the air from the
apertures, threw into the fields sand and pebbles
which had been dislodged from the bottom of those
frightful guis. The unfortunate inhabitants fled
in dismay from the places of their birth.
It is dificult to afford any idea of the scene which
presented itself in the narrow valley of Acorhi.
The was e; of rock, ice, and snow, detached by
th? first shock from • the summit of the Ararat and
its lateral points, were thrown, at one single bound,
from a height of 6,000 feet to the bottom of the
valley, where they lay scattered over an extent of
seven versts.
At first Lot the slightest traces of the monastery
or the village were perceptible ; but gradually the
snow and Ice began to melt, and the mass of debris,
los.ng its adhesion, separated and crumbled away
in various directions. A portion was carried down
by the slope of the valley as far as the banks of the
Karissu, with such rapidity, that huge masses of
ice prLserved e .tire and immense fragments of rock,
were in the space of a few minutes hurled to a
distance of 20 versts from the point where they had
fallen.

- This happened at nine in the morning of the
24th of June. Torrents of clayey mud, of a
whitish colour, issued from the sides of the great
macs of debris, which remained immoveable, inun-
dating and devastating the fields and meadows from
that point to the banks of the Karassu. These
torrents were so great, that between the mountains
bound:ng the valley of Acorhi and the banks of the
river the ground was inundated to the extent of
twelve versts in width.
The sudden formation of these torrents of mud,
and the rapidity of their movement, present an ex-
traordinary phenomenon. It may be conjectured
that masses of compact clay had been formed,
apparently by volcanic evaporation, at the summit
of Mount Ararkt, on the porphyroide trachytes.
These masses, which crushed everything in their
descent, were transformed, at the first contact '
with the water produclid by the melted snow and
ice, into a muddy matter, which afterwards flowed
along the slope of the valley. Perhaps, too,
being carried along by these waters, like other
debris, these masses were dissolved whilst the
torrent was rolling them towards the plain. Be
this as it may, one of these torrents of mud, falling
into the Karassu, forced that river to alter its
course. A vr.st number of mutilated human
dies, frightful evidences of the disaster of Acorhi,
were hurled into Cie Karassu ; so that the waters
of the river were for a long time unfit for use in
cooking or drinking.
By the 5W of July these torrents had entirely
disappeared; but the valley of Acorhi has assumed
quite a new aspect. It has become- broader at its
upper part, because the soil is there more elevited
than it- formerly was, and the boundary of eternal
snow on the Ararat appears lower. Two springs
which used formerly to be remarked at a short dis-
tance from the monastery, now issue from among
the debris of the rock coveting that part of the
valley, and indicate the spot where the venerable
edifice stood. In the same way we can conjecture
the situation once occupied by a small meadow on
the skirts of the mountain opposite the monastery,
which at t ment of the catastrophe was inha-