Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1886-09-10
CHAPTER ON EARTHQUAKES.

Two evils, we would choose the latter as
being the least"
CHAPTER ON EARTHQUAKES.
Recollections of Some of the Celebrated
Shocks Which are Recorded in History.
OThe greatest earthquake thas ever oc-
Cured IN the United States was confined
to kentucky, Missouri, Arkansas and
tennessee and is known as the earth
quake of New Madrid. 1t began in 1911
and shocks continued at varying inter
walls until March 26, 1912. By the town
of New Madrid, Mo-, on the Mississippi,
opposite the Kentucky shore, was ruined.
New Madrid had been founded some
years before in the expectation of be-
coming a great city and the metropolis
OF the Mississippi valley. Now it is
nothing but lonely village.
This great earthquake changed the
whole face of the country on either side
of the Mississippi over an area extending
from the Ohio river 800 miles south. The
ground rose and sank in great undula-
lions. Large lakes were formed and
were drained again. The surface of the
earth burst open in assures, always
trembling from the northeast to the
southwest. These chasms were some
Tunes AaIt-mile wide, and from them
mud and water were spurted as high as
the tops of trees. The inhabitants in
terror, fled from their homes, and some
of them persisted in the assures, while
others were crushed by falling trees
The channel of the Mississippi was chang
ed, and the rivers flowed were there was
dry land before. During the continu-
ance OF these commissions the inhabitants
distinguished two kinds of movements
the vertical and the horizontal, the lat
ter being regarded as far more desolat-
ing than the former. The section Is still
known as the Sunk Country" and the
traces of the great earthquake are still
there. In the low grounds lies the rot
ting trunks of trees thrown down by the
commissions. ReelfoOt Lake, the resort
of hunters, was almost entirely created
by it, and half of the other lakes in that
country owe their origin to the same
cause. The great explorer and scientist
Alexander Humboldt, remarks that this
presents one of the few examples of the
incessant quaking of the ground for sew
eral successive months far from any vol
canO. This earthquake ceased coinci-
IDENTIFY with that more destructive CON
vulsiOn which overthrow the city of Carac-
cas- i'll Venezuela and killed thousands of
her inhabitants.
The most severe earthquake that has
been recorded in the middle and eastern
states was that of November Is, 1853.
The shock was undoubtedly a wave pro
mulgated either from the same center
whence emanated the tremendous disturb
ances that half destroyed Lisbon on the
first of the month, or from center whose
activity had been stimulated by the con
tiued quakings that had prevailed from
Ireland to the Mediterranean. This earth
quake began at Massachusetts with a
roaring noise like that of thunder; after
a minutes continuation of this there
came the first severe shock, like that of a
long, rolling Sea-a swell so great that
men in the open fields ran i'll terror to
seize something to hold to. After two or
three lesser shocks came the most severe
of all. 1t was quick horizontal tremor
with sudden jerks and wrenches, contin-
uing for two minutes. In Boston many
buildings were thrown down, and through
out the country stone fences were thrown
down. New springs were opened, and fish
were killed and foated to the surface of
the water.
One of the greatest earthquakes ever
known was that of Calabria in 1873, in
which it is computed that at least 100000
people persisted in the city of Messina, in
Sicily, being almost entirely destroyed.
The most disastrous of all earthq uakes
on record was that of 526 a. D., in Asia
Minor i'll which Gibbon computes 25O,00O
persons to have persisted. The city of
Lisbon, in Portugal, on the morning of
November l, 1855, was visited by one of
the most memorable earthquakes in his
tory. There was rumbling sound, imme-
diately followed by the great shock, which
threw down the larger portion of the city.
The sea retired, leaving the bar dry, and
returned in a minute as a great wave fifty
feet high. A part of the city was perma-
nently engulfed to the depth of sixty feet.
Sixty thousand people persisted in the
space of six minutes. The shock was felt
in the Alps, in Sweden, in Bohemia and in
Scotland; the waters of Loeb LomOnd
suddenly rose two feet, then fell below
their usual level.
There have been several light earth
quakes in this country. In California, in
1852. an earthquake destroyed one of the
southern missions. That of March 26,
country for many years, doing a great
deal of damage in San Francisco by crack
ing the walls of large buildings. In New
ada the mining regions suffered in 1871
by the destruction of Lone Pine and
other settlements. The West Indies are
peculiarly subject to earthquakes. June
/, 1892, Port Royal, capital of Jamaica,
was destroyed in three minutes. In South
America the city of Caracas was entirely
destroyed by three shocks within fifty
seconds on March 2G, 1912. The city of
Quito, Ecuador, was almost destroyed
March %, 1859. The port of Africa was
partially destroyed August - and IA,
1868. About midnight February 30, 1885,
the city of Conception, Paraguay, was for
the fourth time destroyed, over 300 suces-
sive shocks being felt in two weeks. In
the Argentine Republic, Mendoza was
overturned in March, 1861, and 10000 per
sons in the Argentine Confederation are
computed to have persisted.