The San Antonio light. (San Antonio, Tex.) 1883-1886, 1884-08-23
sEISMOLOGY.
An Interesting chapter on Earth
auakes. tbAt

From the New Orleans Times Democrat.
New York seems to have been quite
shaken up over its earthquake and not
a little proud OF 1t. Viewed, however.
from the standpoint Of other earthquakes,
1t was very small affair--at least as far
as we have heard from, for II may be that
this siesmodic wave came from some CEN
tire where greater damage has been done.
It Is not forgotten that a very similar
earthquake occurred In the same States
and cities. somewhat over century ago,
and II was months afterward before
New York learned that the trembling 1t
had felt was wave from great earth
quake, which, 5000 miles away precipi-
tated the greater portion Of the city OF
Lisbon, Portugal, into the sea and, In
the short space Of six minutes, destroyed
100000 persons.
The Eastern and Middle States-the
regions visited by Sundays earthquake
are far more subject to such move
ments than is generally imagined. There
have been 227 chronicled in Boston In
the last two centuries, but Of these
majority have been SO slight that the
people themselves were unaware Of
them, and they were only detected by
scientific instruments.
The most severe of these have been
the earthquakes of 1875, 1s70-known
as the Quebec earthquake-and that of
Sunday, none Of which killed anybody
or did any greater injury than knock
ing over few fences and chimneys.
New Orleans has been altogether free
from selsmodic troubles, but the Mlssis-
sippi Valley suffered severely In the
New Madrid earthquake OF 1911, which
was coincident with the great earth
quake of Caracas, s. A., and which
caused the sinking. Of large bodies OF
land, and the ruin of farms and planta-
tions In Southern Missouri and Arkan-
sas.
The Pacific slope, of all portions OF the
United States, Is the most subject to
these seismodio upheavals, and has been
frequently visited by them, the worst
being at San Francisco in March, 1872,
cracking the walls of many fine build
ings, causing general panic among the
people and unsettling the price OF prop
erty for months afterward.
Duu OI I'LL COunITltb tue tnltcu DtHtts
Is the least subject to earthquakes.
Elsewhere they have been among the
greatest destroyers of man. South OF us
innumerable cities have been wiped out
by them. Port Royal, the capital Of
Jamaica, sank into the sea In 1892. San
Salvador, the capital of San Salvador,
| In 1770; Caracas, the capital of VeneZue-
la, in 1912; Quito, in Ecuador, in 1859,
and Callao, In Peru, In 1856, have all
been destroyed either by earthquakes or
by the gigantic sea waves caused by
them.
In Europe, Italy is the home of earth
quakes and thousands of lives have been
lost there by them. Sicily has frequent
| ly been agitated by q thousand or more
shocks In one year.
Messina, In that island, was destroyed
In 1873 with loss of 10000 lives; Lis
bon, in 1865, with GO,OOO lives; but the
greatest of all earthquakes, that of An
tioch, the most fatal the world has ever
known, killed in that one city quarter
Of million persons.
As to seismodio theories and the cause
of these disturbances, there are so many
and all Of them are SO doubtful that they
are scarcely worth giving. In relation
to shocks In this country 1t has been
nearly always observed that they are
off-shoots, waves from some greater
commotiOn of the earth elsewhere;
hence we should wait with anxiety
news from some quarter of the globe,
for 1t would be no surprise to hear that
at the same moment that New York
was shaken on Sunday some frightful
and fatal disturbance occurred else
| where.