The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1868-10-21
Earthqual.e. and volcanoes.

The recent efdption of vesuvius and the
earthquakes in the West Indies, have nat
urally turned our thoughts upon some OF
these terrible perturbations Of nature, which
appal the stoutest hearts, and make man feel
bis utter insigni6cance in the presence of the
organic forces Of the world. Earthquakes
and volcanoes are rather agents than effects,
rather the cause Of geographical diversity
than geographical features themselves.
An earthquake may produce momentary
undulation OF the ground, followed by no
perceptible result; IL may elevate one region
or depress another; it may be attended with
a vast destruction of animal life and the sub
mergence of forests; it may alter the course
of rivers, and produce new abores and beach
es, and bury cities In ruins, as 1t did at Lis
bon In 1855. Innumerable instances of such
changes can be cited. We will however
| only mention few.
The earthquake in Chile, in 1922, elevated
an immense tract of ground, equal to 100, 900
| square miles, from two to six feet higher
than it was before, and part of the bottom
of the sea remained bare and dry at high
water, exposing large beds of oysters, mus
| cles and other shell-fsh; but strange to add
all dead. In 1919, there was an earthquake
in India, extending fifty miles in length and
sixteen feet in breadth, which raised the sur
face of the land over ten feet, while adjoin-
| ing districts were depressed, and the features
of the scenery quite altered.
The earthquakes of Calabria, which lasted
| of and on for four years, from 1888 to 1877,
produced numerous assures, landslips, new
lakes, rayines, falls Of sea-eliffs, and other re-
markable changes.
In 1743, tie town of Guatamala, In Mexico,
with oil its riches and 5000 families, was
swallowed up, and every yestige of its former
existence obliterated, the spot being now in
dieated BY frightful desert, twenty-five
miles distant from the site of the present
town. In 1902, a similar calamity overlook
the town of Port Royal, in Jamaica, when
the whole island was frightfully convulsed,
and over l 200 acres in the vicinity Of the
town submerged to the depth of fifty feet.
We know SO little of the earth that nothing
certain can be predicated. When we remem-
Der that the deepest mine is far short of
mile, and that the earth on whose surface
we live is 5000 miles In diameter, we can
form some idea how little We have penetrated
into its internal structure. Nothing like SO
far as the one-hundredth part of the thinnest
rind of an orange.
Volcanic forces act in similar manner, in
as far as they elevate, depress, and break
asunder portions of the earth's crust in
deed, an earthquake and q volcanic eruption,
considered as merely subterraneous move
ments, produce precisely the same results
But volcanoes, properly so called, act in an
other and equally important manner in pro-
dueing geographical changes. They elevate
the crust of the earth into long, continuous
ridges, or mountain chains; they form iso
lated cones; they throw up immense quanti-
ties of lava, ashes, loose stones, and other
burnt substances.
We may mention as proof of the wonder
full power of volcanic heat, that although'the
lava flows out Of the crater as liquid as mo-
lasses, there has not yet been discovered any
method of reducing lava to liquid state
again.
There are three kinds of volcanoes: the
extinct, the dormant, and those which are
necessarily active.
The cause of volcanoes, earthquakes, and
other subterraneous movements, has been
the subject of several theories, but it is, of
course, impossible to come to any definite
decision on the subject Some connect vol
canoes with one great source of central heat,
the residue of that burning state in which
our globe originally appeared. This theory
assumes that the crust of the earth is of va
rious thicknesses, and that it is covered with
immense assures, caused sometimes by the
irregular action of the earth In cooling, or
else by subterranean agitations. Through
these assures, water finds its way to the
mass within; this generates steam and other
gases, and these exploding and struggling to
expand, produce earthquakes and volcanoes
Occasionally, these vapors make their way
through the apertures, and become hot
springs, like the far-famed Geysers of Iceland.
-HeIre1r