The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1886-09-09
in the islands of the Mediterranean and

in the islands of the Mediterranean and
in Greece and Italy, on August 10Th, was
the repeated occurrence of destructive
earthquakesth throughout Greece and Italy;
that there Ind boon 1.-TWO eruptions of
Vcsuyius and that tile volcano was still
very active. These eruptions gave vent
to an internal commotion which had
produced quaking of earth in that
vicinity by the shocks being communicate
ed to the earth have travelled in various
directions, in some with more violence
than in others, as they were felt the same
day throug ghout Egypt, but doing little
damage. The shocks seem to have
extended Westward with more rapidity
and violence than in any other directions,
vibrations of particles of the earth's
surface being transmitted under the sea
at the rate of about one hundred miles
an hour, occupying about seyenty.two
hours in travelling distance of six
thousand FIVE hundred miles, before
reaching the Western shores of the
Atlantic. Travelling as it did, almost due
West, one of the first points on the shore
line which it could reach was the coast of
South Carolina. But we see that it was
felt along the entire coast as far North as
Boston and spread across the continent
with diminishing force, as various more
solid and rocky portions of the surface
crust retard the vibrations until it seems
to have been almost entirely stopped by
friction in the extreme Northwestern
States. The reason why the shocks were
more violent in the vicinity of Charles.
ton and Summerville, is that there is
more of soft yielding nature in the
superficial upper strata which conducted
the vibrations and forward movements of
the earth, waves meeting with less resist
ance than from hard substance farther in
the interior were more rapid and jerky
and shook the surface with more violence.
The presence of innumerable assures OBJ.
seryable in the city and in the country,
as far as Summerville, and beyond is
accounted for by this same soft material
yielding readily to the pressure of the
earth waves which pushed up their crust
and squeezed out, as 1t were, water and
sand subject to pressure. The blue sand
and yellow sand thus elected are found
III tue upper stlaLa, duu tuat ~ Gauuo
from near the surface is proven by the
factthat no mari Is found in 1t, and that
begins at from 65 to 80 feet below the
surface and extends to nearly 1,1O0 feet
deep. To show still more conclusively
that the wave motions were confined to q
very limited depth beneath the surface,
1t is only necessary to slate that none Of
the shallow or four hundred feet artesian
wells are at all affected. Nor is there any
change noticeable in the flow or quality
of the water from two deep artesian wells,
as would have been the case if the cause
of the earthquake had been local or deep
seated. This statement of communities.
tiou of land waves to enormous distances
is fully verified by observations of pre-.
vious earthquakes since and even before
the Christian era. The absence of q
tidal wave proves conclusively that the
cause of disturbance was confined to land
and the jerky motions communicated to
the vessels as reported by their officers
was caused by the vertical vibrations
intermediate between the rapid forward
transmission and slower backward jerks.