The Phoenix herald., 1879-03-22
Volcanoes and Earthquakes.
BY VIRGINIA LINYILLE.

A volcano is an opening in the
 earth's crust, through which issue
 melted rock or lava, stones, ashes,
 fam es smoke and steam. Tho mate
 rial thrown out usually accumulates
 around the opening called the crater. | The most noted volcanoes in the world are Vesuvius, cn the coast of
 Italy, Etne, in Sioely, Stromboli, on
 one of the Lirari islands, Hecla, in
 Iceland, CotoPazi, one of the Andes,
 and Tenerifre, on one of the Canary
 Islands The number of active vol
 canoes on the earth is about 25O,
 more than halt of which are on the
 coast and islands that llne the Pacific
 ocean. The most remarkable vol
 canic region is Malaysia. Earth
 quakes occur mostly in volcanic dis
 ricts, yet any part of the earth's sur face is subject to them The ap- proach of an earthquake, like the
 eruption of a volcano, is sometimes
 indicated by symptoms of unusual
 agitation beneath the surface of the
 ground. Amongst the greatest earth quakes of which we have record is
 that which destroyed the cities of
 Herculaneum and Pompeii, and after
 they had lain in ruins for sixteen
 years, they were again overwhelmed
 by an eruption of Mt Vesuvius. In
 1892 Port Royal, the capital of the Jamaica. was sunk in less than one
 minute, the sea rolling in and driving the vessels that were in tie haIbor over the tops of the sinking houses
 The great earthquake of Lisbon, in
 1855, commenced with a dull, rum
 bling sound below the surface, i'm mediately followed by a tremendous shock which threw down a large part of the city, ahd in the space f six minutes G0,0O0 people perishod. 4 Dortion of the earth four times as large as Europe was affected by the terrific shock The water of the Scotch lakes suddenly arose above and then subsided below their level. On the shores ot the West Indies the tide rose twenty feet, and the water resemb!ed ink. In 1Sf1 occurred the earthquake of Madrid, in Missouri, which was remarkable for the con- tinuous quaking and rending over an extent of 800 miles during several months. Great openings were made in the surface from which mud and water were projected. In 1S22 an earthquake occurred in Chila, which resulted in the elevation of large section of country to a height vary ing from two to seven feet. In 1859 | the city of Quito and several towns in | lis vicinity were almost entirely de stroyed ny an earthquake In August, ! 1868, an earthquake occurred in Peru, Chilli and Equador, which caused a fearful loss of life and prop erty; and in October several shocks | were experienced in California, caus- ing considerable damage in the prin- cipal cities. Subsidences like up heavals sometimes occur so gently that the inhabitants are only aware of the change by the difference in the seas level. In 1919 an area of } GOO square miles about the mouth of the Indus, in Hind0ostan, was converted by an earthquake into an inland sea. The fort and village of Sindree sank so much that only the tops of the fort, houses and trees were seen above the water. The coast of Sweden has been rising for many years near Stockholm, at the -ate of few inches in a century. In 1866 an island was upheaved from he bottom or the sea, southeast of Greece. The water was violently agi- ated and from the Assures rushed lame, smoke and fragments of rock Eolcanoes and earthquakes the rising md sinking of the land, are all attrib- lted to the pressure of steam and gases proceeding from the heated in erior of the earth Volcanoes allow he escape of fire and gases from the interior of the earth, and thus pre- -ent greater destruction by earth Iuakes.