The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1868-11-07
THE RECENT EARTHQUAKE.
Where the Crust of the Earth IS
Thick and Thin, and Where 1t is
Hard and soft-Extraordinary Phe-

The earthquakes at Fan Francisco on
Wednesday last, some twelve or thirteen IN
number, extended, says the New York
Herald, it appears, pretty much along the
whole coast line of California, and back to
the foot hills of the Sierra Nevada, or
snowy mountains, which are part of the
great volcanic chains of the American con-
tinent Earthquakes come from some vol
canic disturbances, and we dare say that all
these volcanic perturbations in both hemis-
pheres since May last, may be traced to the
grand eruption eof that mouth of the terri
bic Mauna Loa, of the Sandwich islands,
the king Of all the earths volcanoes That
eruption, we conjecture, caused such a com
mot on of the fiery fluids inclosed within
the thin shell of our globe that they have
been f1om time to time, breaking out at va
rious ehimneys and shaking the earth more
or less severely at various thin places ever
since.
1t is a remarkable fact while from the
18th to the 18th of August last those fearful
earthquakes came upon Ecuador and Peru
involving in ruin numerous towns and cities
on the 18th of August the same phenomena
was felt and seen at Yokohama in Japan,
and along the southern and eastern coasts of
Australia, and that on the Goth pretty Sc
we're earthquake shook down a number of
buildings at Peshewur, IL India. These al
most simultaneous disturbances were doubt
less the result Of the pressure of the inter
nal liquid fire from one side right through
the heart of the earth against the other side
of the shell. These shakes which they have
had In California came from the agitation
impaired to the lava which underlies the
com mparatively thin crust of the western sec
tion of our continent East of the Missis-
sippi river we repose upon a thick, solid and
reliable crust aE .5 sa.-. .t
We have no volcanoes in this section, be
| cause we have no use for these safety valves
and escape pipes. We are all right. But
in 1911, it will be remembered by some,
there was an earthquake at New Madrid, on
the west side of the Mississippi, from which
some forests went down and some little lakes
were created From the west side of the
Mississippi, therefore, we may assume the
crust of the earth, to the Pacific, especially
in the valleys, is comparatively thin, and the
two sections are as widely different as Eu-
rope and Asia. The continent east from the
Mississippi is like Europe, and west like
Asia 7"a
But we have spoken of the great volcanic
chain of America This chain of noun
tains and subterranean fires extends from
Cape Horn and Terra del Fuego, or the land
of the fire, up to Mount St Elias, in Alaska
Through South America 1t is the backbone
of the continent; through Central America
and Mexico it is scattered about, but
abounds IN volcanoes and earthquakes.
At the southern boundary of to the
! United States two great chains branch of the
northward, the Rocky Mountains and the
Sierra Nevada The Rocky Mountain chain
is the backbone proper of North America
but it is no longer volcanic. 1t was, in
ages gone by, but its craters have become
extinct, and are lakes West OF this back
bone chain, on the way to Great Salt Lake,
we have Fremont Great Basin an Isolated
region of some 500 miles wide and 100
miles long, the water-courses of which are
! lost in the sands of the desert or, expanding
into lakes, are evaporated by the sun. This
Great Basin, from the water marks on the
mountains of the rim, was at one time an
arm of the ocean, or an inland sea like the
Caspian, but was at later period lifted up
by the fiery forces inside the earth and
| land. All this vast and inhospitable region,
with the region northward to Oregon, was
aptly described by Fremont as volcanic re-
gion hardly yet cooled dOwn-"a a land of
fracture and violence and FIRE" The ma.
merous hot springs In the mountains and
valleys and the volcanic chemicals of the
ashy soil of the plains, support Fremont in
this description.
On the west side of this great basin we
have the Sierra Nevada, or the continuation
of the living volcanic chain from South
America. 1t runs along parallel with the
Pacific coast, a hundred miles off, more or
less, ali the way to Mount St Elias. in Alas.
ka. This chain has numerous peaks, rising
from II, 600 to II 600 feet above the sea, and
two of them-Mount Hood, in Oregon, and
Mount St Helens, further north-wers re-
ported to be smoking last autumn from vol
canic combustion. At all events, under this
mountain chain, in Its whole length, the
volcanic forces Of the earth are compare
tively near the surface; and so, for centuries
to come, perhaps, ell the countries on both
sides viii be liable to earthquakes. Hereaf-
ter, five and siz-story buildings will be
rather risky business IN San Francisco, at
least for year or two, though such a shak-