Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1886-09-10
EARTHQUAKES AND THEIR
SPECULATT TIVE ORIGIN.

The scientific world is still too much al
sea on the subject of the earthquake, which
underran 100000 square miles of the
United States, for laymen TO venture ever
upon surmises. This uncertainty cannot
be better illustrated than by the fact thai
while Prof. Dawson, geOloglst OF hlgt
t,Iepueo was recurring before theADritist
Association at Birmingham, England, or
Wednesday morning of last week, On the
geological formation of the bed of the
Atlantic, tie news of the American earth.
quake came and completely upset many
of the conclusions he had set forth, based
on the observations of earthquakes ten
years ago. The most widely accepted
theory is that earthquakes are resultant
from the cooling Of the interior of the
earth which is progressing slowly, and
the consequent shrinking, which produces
the commissions of the shell on which hui
mainly has its residence. 1t is believed
that the earth is always In a constant ire
NOR, existant but SO slight as not to be
| perceptible. from this shrinking. In times
gone by when the globe was cooling much
more rapidly than now, or much more per-
ceptibly, the commissions were more for
chile, as the surface Of the earth marked
| by immense beds of rock, shows. In the
last fourteen years the tremor has been
varied in the United States and Canada
by four hundred and thirty-three earth
Quakes Of greater or less distinctness-an
average for that territory alone of over two
a month.
1t seems hard TO determine about the
Cha1lesto earthquake. where lies, what is
called the seismic centre from which the
late convulsion was proiected-whether
under South Carolina or under Greece.
where only the Saturday before one occurr-
ed destroying six hundred lives. Just as
one hundred and eleven years ago it was in
doubt whether the earthquake which
destroyed Lisbon was the same one
which reappeared in Massachusetts
thirty days after. attended by a
tidal wave thirty feet high. The
same thing was in question when the
great earthquake in Missouri took place;
the ground along the mouth of the Ohio
river for three hundred miles alternately
sinking and rising and forming and
emptying lakes, in unison oftime
with convulslon that was progressing
at Caracas, in South America
The last notable earthquake in America
was that in San Francisco, fourteen years
ago. but it caused no loss of life. In Staun-
ton only two earthquakes have been felt,
and those but slightly, in this generation
they were that Of August two years ago
and that of last week.
Charleston, the present sufferer, has
been a city of many trials. During the
eighteenth century it was twice nearly
destroyed by fire; again in 1888 and again
in 1861, and it was only last summer that
a cyclone set it back in growth. It is a
dismal fact that in the twenty years from
1860 to 1880, its population only increased
fifteen hundred. But in the five years end
ing in 1885 it bad shown new life and ener-
gy, and It's population had leaped from
$4,000 to 60, 900; its trade had enlarged and
prosperity was making its home there.
The people have not even under their late
visitation. lost heart, and in four days
after the earthquake, were clearing away
| the debris, repairing shattered houses and
preparing to replace those that had fallen
down. The merchants are already send
| ing out notice to the country to prevent
| their customers from going elsewhere, and
giving notice that Charleston is fully ready
to transact her usual autumn trade.