The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1900-12-03

NNANN'' N'hJ Att'~AN'
reported by the Government Technical
commission, no less than three hundred
and forty houses were considerably
damaged, and the fomous eathedra
had its walls and eupolas, even if only
lightly, rent with cracks The ehurcf
of st. Sebastion was completely
wrecked In Chinandega sixty houses
We're completely destroyed or reduced
to that condition of insecurity that they
had to be torn down. Much damage
was inflicted by this earthquake, ever
in solid stone constructions.
Towards minimizing the possible eff
fects of seismic disturbances Major
Dutton correlates these phenomena
with the activities of the volcanoes
and expresses the belief that the prin-
cipal earthquakes, and perhaps we
may say all the forcible ones have had
their center in close proximity to the
volcanoes, or underneath them, and are
! incidents apparently of the volcanic ae-
tivity. There is no evidence nor any
suggestion, so Ear as l can ascertain,
that any of them have originated at a
| considerable distance from the volca-
noes" Dr.. Earl Sapper, who during a
number of years has made a special
study of the Central American volca-
noes, and had the opportunity to make
a personal examination of the region OF
last disturbance, arrives at a eoncul-
| sion precisely the reverse of that ex-
| pressed by Mr. Dutton. He finds, af-
ter careful study Of the surrounding
volcanoes that none gives indication of
| having originated or been directly as
| ISOLATED with the seismic disturbances
of April 1893. which is regarded as a
purely tectonic one, developed through
rock dislOcation in an area of special
crystal weakness And he significantly
remarks that sin such a sunken trough
Gas that occupied by the Depression of
the lakes, which only acquired its fea
lures in a geologically recent period,
tectonic disloeation can be expected
with certainty" translated from Clio
bus, April s, 1890,
1t can hardly be said that the conclu-
siops arrived at by Mr. C. Willard
Hayes, United States geologist of the
Nicaragua Canal commission of 1S97-90,
which, while not based upon any spec
ial study of the earthquake or volcanic
phenomena of the region, are wholly
confirmatory of those expressed by Ma
jor Dutton, are more convincing than
those of his predecessor in the field.
Mr.. Hayes closely associates the earth
quake phenomena of the region with its
volcanic activities, and assumes the
simultaneous decadence of the two
classes of phenomena The well-known
facts of volcanic regions, apart from
the history of the special region itself,
give, however, scant couutenance to the
supposition that the volcanic events of
the CostaR ican- Nicaragua ranges be
long almost entirely to the solfataric
stage, which characterizes the extinc-
ton of volcanic activity With equal
truth could one designate the rest peri
DDS of Vesuvius and Aetna, or of Coli
ma, in Mexico, as representing a sol
fatara stage. Nor do the known facts
regarding volcanoes permit of the ac-
ceptance of the view that because a
great mass of material has
been extruded from these vents in COM
paratively recent geological times, 1t is
very clear that the activity of the re-
gion is on the wane." The history of
every large volcano, with its super
posed beds of lava. etc, representing
different periods of eruption, is clear
contradiction of this assumption and
the late events In the Sandwich Islands
are eloquent and convincing testimony
to the contrary. AS well could the
statement regarding the somnolence of
the Nicaraguan volcanoes have been
made Immediately prior to the catas-
trophe of Cosequina as to-day. Indeed,
the records of the fifty years preceding
the Cosequina eruption, If in their inn
perfection they indicate anything at all,
plainly tend to prove that there has
latterly been an increase rather than a
decrease, in the intensity Of the VOL
canic action, and that perhaps even the
region affected by it has enlarged rath-
er han diminished. Mr.. Hayes him
self cautiously admits, with regard to
the volcano of Omotepe, in which he re-
cognizes one source of danger to the /
western division of the canals that /
while mo eruption appears imminent,
there is no certainty that its activity (
has entirely ceased This volcano has
been regarded as being entirely extinct |
prior to the eruption of 1888
Mr.. Hayes, while adopting in gene |
raj way Major buttons views as to the |
absolute nter-relatiOnshp of earth |
quake and volcanic phenomena in the
Nicaraguan-Cost -Rican region, a view
hat is not shared by the Technical |
which was appointed by the
Ntcaraguan government to report upon
he earthquake of 189S-admits the
that the earthquake in
question may have been the result of
(dislocation) and even
significantly suggests that the present
may be due to further
displacement along one Of these old
ines OF fracture or to the inauguration
4 new fracture" (p. 1860. With this
admission and the further statement
hat the region to the north of Lake
Nicaragua has been affected by faults
n comparatively recent times geol-
gist need hardly assent to the propo-
ition, otherwise entirely unsupported
" the facts of geology, that earth
uakes "due to dislOcatiOns of the stra
a are perhaps no more liable to occur
n the vicinity of the Nicaraguan canal
han elsewhere" and hence constitute
% danger which is peculiar to this re-
ion more than to almost any other in ,
lhich q ship-canal might be construc- :
ed"
or A