Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1886-09-23
The Great Earthquake.

6S III lulST6Sl, duu III It's Importance Tel
atively to other phenomena of the kind
as its extent and effects and the value Of
the scientific differences deducible from
it become better known. Besides being
felt at nearly all points in the United
States east of the Missouri river and il
Canada, il was distinctly felt through
out the Mediterranean basis, viz: al
Antequera. near Malaga, in Spain, ane
was accompanied by previously unob
served volcanic eruption in Malta. AS
the shocks at Smyrna we're felt between
10 and y, Smyrna time, and those al
Charleston and elsewhere in the United
States at about the same hour of oul
time, it would seem that the agitation
passed westward at almost identically
the rate at which solar time traverses
the globe.
The phenomenon is thus connected
with disturbances il the Mediterranean
and it now appears that the earthquakes
of the week before in Greece, by which
several hundred lives were lost, were ac'
companied within "a by shocks on this
side of the ocean, which were only felt
in Charleston very distinctly, and in
and in North Carolina very family. The
seat of the agitation, therefore, either
lies below the Atlantic, or its effects are
transmissible through its bed, making
it an inter, continental affair of the first
magnitude. 1t will be very strange
if it shall appear that no tidal wave has
accompanied it in any part of the At
lantic.
Our last preceding earthquake was
even an affair of three continents. On
June 18th last, tremor was felt in
Sandy Hook and Coney Island, within
"a hours of a pronounced shock at Anti
qua, in the West Indies, and Poitiers, in
France, both of which were nearly sim
ultaneous with the terribly destructive
outbreak in New Zealand.
The velocity with which the wave of
shock travels has in some instances been
measured by means of the telegraph
with marvellous accuracy. In 1870 a
shock began near Quebec, and extended
westward to Chicago and southwark to
New York. A curious incident in col
nection with this harmless tremoT Was
that warning was telegraphed from
Quebec to Montrael so promptly, that
the latter place got their advices thirty
seconds before the shock reached them.
The velocity of the wave of shock was
in this case computed at $4,000 feet per
second.
The great earthquake which destroy
ed Lisbon on November 1st, 1755, was
followed for three weeks by almost con-
tinual quakings from Iceland to the
Mediterranean, ending on November
18th in the most severe quake ever felt
in New England. 1t began in Massa-
chusetts with roar like that of distant
thunder, followed by rolling swell Oh
which the earth rocked like vessel at
sea, ending in quick, horizontal jerking
shock. which is said to have continued
two minutes. Nine hours afterward a
sea wave twenty feet high reached st.
Martins in the West Indies. In 1911,
there was quaking for several months
over an area extending from New Mad+
rid, Mo-, to South America, where it end
ed on March 26th, 1912, in the great and
destructive earthquake at Caracas. South
America is doubtless the banner CONT
nent for earthquakes, their violence and
frequency in all parts of that continent
exceeding any elsewhere known. That
of April, 1852, destroyed $4,000 persons
in Buenos Ayres alone. One in Chilli, in
1922, permanently raised an area of land
as large as Indiana and Illinois combin-
ed from two to seven feet.
These and many other like cases show
that the forces which produce earth
quakes are those inseparable from the
condition of the vast body of the earth's
interior as a molten and fluid mass,
slowly parting with its heat and con-
tracing its volume. Forty miles down.
ward is the greatest distance to which
we may be permitted to suppose solid
crust extends. This is only one hun
dredth part of the distance to the earth's
center The perfect fuidity of so large
mass constitutes, therefore, central
and omnipotent force, to whose tenden-
cies the thin exterior crust must con-
form. 1t is only remarkable that, being
in much this state of fuidity, it should
be so more stable, and so much less obe-
ent to the tractile force exerted by the
moon and sun than the volume of water
Oh the earth's surface is shown to be by
the regular recurrence of the tides.
The notion that parts of the earth's
crust in which the strata appear to be of
older geological date like the Atlantic
coast, are more secure against the eX+
treme effects of earthquakes than the
Rocky Mountain or Pacific coosts, is a
mere theory, liable to prove a delusion.
The forces are too sublimely vast, and
the areas over which they act are too
great, to admit of restraint from the
supposed solidity of rocky strata or con
gelations. AS well suppose the rock
ings of the ocean could be restrained by
film of ice on its surface.
The Democratic convention to nom
mate two candidates for Common Pleas
Judge in the first subdivision of the
Second Judicial District, to succeed
Judge Elliott and Judge Hume, met at
Dayton, o. Judge Elliott was nominat+
ed by acclamation. General Ferdinand