The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1902-05-17

of 500, 900 in country which is the crater
Of political revolutions to build a canal over
the lair of earthquakes.
View of Geologist Winchell.
Professor N. H. WincheH, of this city,
president of the American Geological So
ciety and for twenty five years state geolo-
gist Of Minnesota, says:
There is no question that the whole of Mic
aragua, together with Guatemala and San
Salvador on the north and Costa. Rica on the
south, is a volcanic region subject to recur
rent volcanic and earthquake convulsions. 1t
was thought that the review of this subject
by Senator Cushman K Davis in the United
States senate in 1891 was overdrawn. But
examination shows that the facts cited ty
him are well authenticated by the best scien-
tfic authorities, and that the old Indian name
which interpreted means 1.-The land that
swings like hammock" is by no means with
out basis in fact. ~. r-.- l..
The recent work Volcanoes of North
America" by Professor Israel C. Russell, who
occupies the chair Of geology in the UniQer-
sity Of Michigan, gives list of the active
and recently extinct volcanoes of Central
America, in which he finds that Nicaragua
has seventeen, of which twelve are active or
quiescent; San Salvador, Immediately north,
eleven, of which eight are active or quiescent
and one is constant; Costa Rica. Immediately
south, nine, Of which three are active or qui-
escent: together with Twenty-Five in Guate-
mala Honduras and Colombia, of which eight
are marked active or quiescent-making a to-
tai of sixt,T-six, of which thirtyone are put
down on the active CT quiescent list, all with
in a radius of something like 400 miles Of the
proposed Nicaraguan canal route, and six at
distance Of twenty to seventyhve miles.
The eruption of Consequina, in northern
Nicara qua, in 1885, may be cited as one of the
tour greatest volcanic catastrophes OF human
annals the other three being Vesuvius in 49,,
krakatoa in 1888 and the recent explosion of
Mont Pelee. The earthquake shock accompa-
nying the eruption of Conseeuina did great
damage throughout the isthmus and from
Mexico down into South America. -. .
The general hypothesis of the gradual cool
Ing 81 the earth does not imply any marked
dininution from year to year OF the dangers
from volcanic disturbance What the volcanic
regions have been doing during the past thou
sand years they in measure are likely to be
doing during the next thousand, and what
they are doing now they have been doing
| back into far geological time. The Cordille-
| ran range of volcanic cones which forms the
| wall between the Caribbean sea and the Pa
cific ocean appears to lie on a great assure
| which dates from archean geological time.
| New volcanoes break out along this great MS
sure from time to tinne of which celebrated
examples are Izalco in San Salvador in 177O
Jorullo in Mexico in 1889, naneless volcano
! whose appearance was witnessed by Squie1
In Nicaragua in 1850, and the eruption in the
center of Lake 1lopango, San Salvador. just
north of Nicaragua, in 1879 /,
| - AS the crust of the earth gets thicker by
lapse of time, it is more able to repress vol
I canic eruption. and therefore there may be
2 gradual diminuton in the frequency of the
! eruptions but from this same cause tbs
! eruptions may be the more violent Instead
| Of frequent escape of steam and lava from
| open vents, the steam and gases may be PEN
up Until the mount ain blows its head off, as
in the cases of Conseeuina. Krakatoa anc
Pelee. - nj"
A season Of heavy rainfull, which swells
the lakes and streams and fills the under
| ground strata, including the volcanic assures
is common condition precedent to seismic
con vulsions There does not seem to be an!
question that the whole Caribbean region
from the chain pf volcanic isles which form
the eastern boundary of this tropic sea to tn
Central American volcanic chain which form
the western boundary, has experienced dur
ing the past six months one of the heavies