The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1868-05-12
The EartI1auake at n1auna Loa. .

Inc Eartn4uake at mauna LOR.
The Newark Aduertiser, speaking of the
recent terrific earthquake at Mauna Loa,
says:
I" Terrible as this earthquake was, it is by
no means the most violent or most disas-
trous Of which we have record. The region
of the Mediterranean has repeatedly been
devastated in the same manner. Passing
blythe historical earthquake which destroyed
Herculaneum and Pompem in the year Go,
which was sixteen years before those cities
were buried in the ashes from Vesuvius,
the great earthquake Of Lisbon in 1855 far
exceeds it in terror. In the short space of
six minutes 10000 persons persisted. The
seain the harborretired, leaving the bardry,
and then rushed back again in wave more
than fifty feet in height. This phenomenon
of tidal waveis the usual accompaniment
of such disturbances on the Shore Of the
sea, and the disasters at St. Thomas are
still fresh in the memory of our readers. !;
Nearly all the earthquakes seem to be
associated with volcanic action, although no
portion Of the globe is entirely free from
thin crust we live upon, how mere on egg
shell is this too solid earth, may be
judged from the vast extent of surface
sometimes affected. The Lisbon shock was
felt over one-eighth of the surface of the
world and this Of Mauna Loa was distinct
ly felt ut San Francisco on the 9th of
March. AS an actual fact, biologists assert
that the relative proportion of the solicited
surface to the molten contents of this tor
pedo on which we exist is about that of the
she'll of an egg to its contents. Changes in
the contour of islands, and even of CONT
nents, which seem to us gigantic, shrink in
their proportions when we think of the film
on which we tread and of the hell of fire
that RACES beneath. In the earthquakes of
Chill, in 1922, the country between the
Andes and the Pacific was permanently lifted
from four to seven feet higher above the
level of the sen than it was before; and the
area thus raised is estimated to equal fully
100000 square miles. Lines of sea-beach,
at various elevations, and successive pre-
cipitous cliffs, mark the place when, in the
incandescent period, our own region was
similarly uplifted. The Palisades Of the
Hudson, Bergen Heights, and those strange
islands Of rock that break the monotony of
the Newark meadows, are all of volcanic
origin.
g In other cases the level of the land is de-
pressed. In 1892, Port Royal, in the island
of Jamaica, was carried down, with the
greater portion of its buildings, beneath
the surface of the water and the sea rolled
in upon them, carrying ships above the
roofs of the houses and to this day part
of the harbor of Kingston is hoored with
the sunken CITY. In l772, the volcano Of
Papandayang, then the loftiest in the island
of Java, was in action, when IN area sud
denly sunk down, including the mountain
itself, fifteen miles long and five broad,
carrying with it forty villages and destroy
ing three thousand persons.
tsSuch are the phenomena that attend
earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. 1t
will be seen that though the latest of them
is terribly grand, it is by no m leans unpre-
cedented."