The herald., 1897-08-11
VULCAN MAY WAKE
EARTHQUAKE LIKELY TO SHAKE
THE UNITED STATES
New Burning Mountains in Various
Mexican States-Conditions
Among Our Peaks

great volcanic unheaVal?
Recent reports from Mexico indicate
an unusually active revival of volcanic
phenomena. Some of the largest of the
cones are in state of eruption. and new
volcanoes are forming. Outbursts in
New Mexico and Arizona have been fire.
quently chronicled. Reports Of similar
occurrences have been received from
Idaho and Wyoming, although they are
of a more doubtful nature. Earth
quakes have been felt quite frequently OF
late in various states, and if the record
of little more than score of years is
taken into account a continual success
sion of eruptions and quakings can be
quoted There seems, in fact, to be a
substratum of unrest underlying the
surface of the United States, and the
feeling in scientific circles seems to be
that the sudden uprising of the god of
Vulcan and all the earth quakings tha;
would accompany it would be no surpris-
ing event.
New volcanoes are reported to have
arisen in the states of Vera Cruz, OAK
aca, and in Tehuantepec. The old vol
oano of Colina, on the Pacific slope of
the republic, with it's point rising 10000
tion of almost uninterrupted activity for
six years. Rumor has also associated
eruptive phenomena with the giants of
the Mexican plateau, Popocatapetl and
Orizaba, but such rumor, except in so
far as it is supported by the wreaths of
sulphurous vapor which from time to
time curl out from the summit craters,
and which have in greater or less degree
added scenic features to the landscape.
lacks proper confirmation. Yet it is by
no means improbab BILE that these same
giants, now in condition of almost
peaceful repose, will again before Ions
shake to its foundations the mighty
plateau which more than once in the his
tory of the land had been rifted and torn
by similar forces, a S is evidenced by the
hundreds or thousands of peaks, walls
and battlements which almost every
where scar the surface of the country.
RECENT VOLCANIC PHENOMENA A
To the average inhabitant of the
United States it is proba bly, unknown
that volcanoes exist in this country. 1t
is true that from time to time notices
have appeared in the journals that dis
turbances of one kind or another and at
tributed to volcanic forces had been
noted in the different states and terri
tories of the west, but such notices have
usually been disposed of with the assur-
ance that they were not founded on fact.
The observant traveller, however, who
has made the traverse of the southwest
ern United States, or of the Pacific tier
of states, will have easily satisfied him
hat In
they be not representative of vitality at
the present moment, have added largely,
and in a comparatively recent period TO
the supercrust of the land. In New
Mexico and Arizona vast lava fields
black and clustered as in the days of
their eruption. roll off from mountain
peaks which are yet perfect in form; the
peaks themselves rise to 10000 or II, 900
feet elevation, with all that beauty of
shape which indicates a mountain re-
Gently constructed.
Elsewhere giant walls of volcanic rock
traverse the country in Titanic grandeur
and towering pinnacles, dismantled ex-
cept as to their peak, narrowed and near
ly vertical sides, add further testimony
to the violence of former activities, hard
ly yet exhausted. In California, Shasta
Butte, with an altitude of IA, ,442 feet, has
the form of the perfect volcano. So has
Mount Hood in Oregon and Baker and
Tacoma or Rainier, in Washington the
last of which is generally conceded to be
the most graceful and perfect mountain
form in the national domain, dominating
the landscape from the proud elevation of
14,444 feet. Formerly boiling with mol
ten rock at the summit it today dis
charges fields of ice, glaciers of no in
considerable magnitude, as the index of
its quaSi-peaceful retirement.
THE CHARLESTON CALAMITY
The question now arises what is the
prospect or the possibilities of the near
future? Science has its surprises, and
it would perhaps not be safe to predicate
the future. Eleven years ago, at meet
ing of the British Association for the
Advancement of Science presided over
by one of the most eminent American
biologists, the statement was hazarded
in the presidential address that from the
peculiar construction of the Atlantic
border of the United States, earthquake
disturbances of any cote were all but
impossible in that country. During the
TedulHS OIL tHe ADDRESS, While the arSu-
ments in favor of the thesis were being
warmly advarced, a cablegram was
handed in to the effect that the city of
Charleston had been overthrown, the
result Of an earthquake of remarka BILE
intensity and extent of passage With
pleasing grace it was admitted that
while the theory of the thesis may have
been sound, the practice was contrary
and did not support it,
Protracted periods of inactivity from
part of the history of the greater mum
Der of the volcanic mountains of the
globe, and many of the most violent ca
tastrophes are such as have followed
after long intervals upon such periods
So long as the mountain maintains the
dominant form of the structure which il
represents, so long must its potency be
considered only partially, if at all, i'm
paired Only after it has beer in the
main dismembered or dismantled can its
energies be safely looked upon as hav-
ing passed Many of the volcanic noun
tains of the national domain still retain
their perfect form; such are the peaks
| that have already been mentioned, and
| the geologist would in no way be sur
prised if at any time the activities which
built them up would reassert them
selves and further convulse the region
of hoir 1,trf6