The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1885-02-27
EARTHQUAKES.
A Years Remarkable Work All Over The
World

Years Remarkable Work All Over The
World.
The past twelve months, like the
preceding year, has been period Of
earthquake disturbances quite strange
TO modern times. Over almost every
part of the world there have been os-
citations Of the earth's crust more or
less fatal, though in no instance have
We to record anything so terrible as
the frightful disasters which befell
Chios, Ischia and Brakatoa. Compared
with these catastrophes, the tremors
which have dismantled the stately
.'casas" of Spain. or those which q few
days ago alarmed Pontevedra and Vigo,
and awakened unpleasant recollections
In the minds of Lisbon, are scarcely
worthy Of mention. However, what
this years earthquakes have lacked In
intensity they have gained In uniyer-
salty. They have been felt from Ii
NOR to Essex. In Styra, Bosnia, Greece
and Germany there were shocks, and
at one spot in Turkestan as many as
ninety were counted. In Iceland there
were volcanic eruption, which are so
closely connected with earthquakes,
and in December. few days earlier
than the one now experienced, oscilla-
lions ran across Europe from Hungary
to Lisbon, and In other towns in Portu-
gal. Almost coincident with these
tremors were violent earthquakes in
various parts Of New Zealand, long
series throughout Switzerland. and sew
eral Of an intermittent character In
various parts of Italy, which formed a
sort Of prelude to the eruption Of Mount
Vesuvius in the following January. In
Sicily and Asia Minor there were
alarms which caused serious trepida-
ton lest the story of former years
should be repeated. Indeed, almost
every month up to the present date,
there have been shocks in South Amer
lea. in Armenia, in Algeria, in Chios,
in the West Indies, in Spain, at Con-
stantinople, in New Foundland, in CAL
ifornia, Ischia, at Sinope, along the
shores of the Sea of Marmora, IN At
ghanistan, at Reunion, In the United
States, in Canada, at Massowah, at
Aleppo and, among other places, at
the Island Of Kishm, in the Persian
Gulf, where, on the 10th of May, twelve
villages were destroyed, 200 people
killed and a great many injured.
Still IL Is remarkable as showing how
little these mysterious movements are
dependent on the seasons, or---despitc
the popular delusion TO the contrary
on the condition of the weather, that
while the Autumn and early Winter of
1883 were notable for seismic disturb
ances this year we have had scarcely a
shock to record from the middle of Sep
TENDER until now, the globe having
been generally quiescent, with the ex-
ception of slight quivering at Chios,
and another at Salerno in the first and
second weeks of December.
The geologist has taught us how lit
tie deserving Is the stable earth" of
the reputation 1t had earned at the
poets hand. Were it possible to pre-
serve an accurate chronicle of every
oscillation which Is felt over every
square mile of the world, il would most
likely be found that In no single hour,
or perhaps minute, is the misnamed
terra firma quite at rest. II Is always
on the move, though 1t is only when
the oscillations level towns and crush
hundreds of human beings that the
event gains prominent place in the
pages of history. Everywhere the in
vestigator comes across evidence Of vast
movements of the soil of which no note
has been preserved, though their per-
manent effects have been UNNECESSARILY
greater than those of the great earth
quakes of Calabria. Java, South Amer
lea and Portugal.
, We are too apt to estimate the inten-
sity of an earth tremor by the amount Of
damages which it causes to life and
property; whereas, In fact, few modern
earthquakes have done much to alter
the surface of the ground, unless we
accept these which sank the Rum Of
Cautch, and caused the depression
around Madrid and the United States.
Even now, the visible evidences of the
Lisbon catastrophe have all but yanish-
ed, and when the houses of Ischia have
been rebuilt. the written tales and the
legends of the people will alone attest
the wreck which was wrought in few
moments during the dismal Autumn
of 1883.
Nature does her great works not by
cataclysms, but by the action of her
forces through unnumbered ages. The
rain and the rivulet hew mountains out
oflevel plateaux; rivers fill up lakes
and glaciers eXcavate them. aud in
Arizona the long-continued action Of
the Colorado and its tributaries has
chiselled gorges mile deep in the
solid rock. No earthquake has accom-
plished a 1.-THE Of this metamorphosis.
This. however, is simply geograph-
er's view of the question. The student
of art and the lover of the monuments
OF antiquity cannot forget the irrepara-
bic ruin which seismic shock might
create in land so rich in architectural
glories as in Andalusia. Hitherto 1t
has escaped. But when we remember
that high over Grenada towers the Al
hambra, that lovely poem in marble
and Arabesque, one trembles TO hear
of an earthquake so near its stately
halls and matchless courts. Malaga
may have few treasures worthy of men,
ton alongside those of her sister cities.
Yet even that single arch Of the Moor
ish "Atarazanas' Is too precious to be
thrown down without making the
world poorer, while Cordova has ca
thedral the like of which does not eX-
ist in Christendom. Nor, when An
dalusia Is mentioned, can the English
mon forget that one of its seward
capes is the famous Rock of Gibraltar.
This stronghold has stood many siege.
and may be called on to defy many
another yet to come. But were the
place TO be visited by any such disaster
as that which levelled lschia and over
whelmed Lisbon, those wonderful gal
lerics which attest the persistence OF
our race, and the endless batteries
which render the fortress ofGebel Tarik
impregnable to man, might in minute
be annihilated. In fewer moments than
1t has taken generations to rear them,
the works of ages might be effaced, and
the question OF who shall hold tho key
of the Mediterranean settled without
the Intervention of an International
Conference. - London Standard.
In Norway and Sweden accumula-