Albuquerque daily citizen. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1895-1903, 1902-05-17
Worlds Earthquakes

/, and American tourists, was totally de-
stroyed.
Those in the village who survived
the falling walls rushed to the beach
to put out TO sea in boats. The wave
came in and washed victims from the
sands by the hundreds.
The full extent of the disaster has
never been calculated, because several
small islands indefinitely settled were
involved. but more than 5000 people
are known to have been killed.
In 1891. and again in 1894. China and
Japan were both visited by terrible
earthquakes.
The island of Hante of the Grecian
group suffered terribly in 1894. when
5000 were killed and as many more
made homeless. The Grecian archipel-
ago from time immemorial has been
the home Of earthquakes.
Central America, like Mexico, is in
constant commotion. and this has been
urged frequently against the feasibility
of an istnmian canal. Grenada, Cen
trail America. has been destroyed by
earthquakes SIX times. San Salvador
ten times and San Jose and Costa RIGA
five times.
Some of the most destructive earth
dudhtS nave OCCuIItU III INtW LCdldHu,
which is a vast lava bed.
In 1895 Alaska suffered a terrible
shaking up, which destroyed whole
Alaskan tribes of Indians.
During the terrible disturbances of
the earth the Yakuta Indians were told
by a medicine man that human sacri-
flee was necessary to appease the
wrath of the Great Spirit. At the next
] ShneE nm i'm rnnncp unn nnanQ6 in tho
ground and an Indian woman advanced
and threw her baby in the chasm. The
walls closed on ii instantly.
This. as it happened, was the last of
the seismic disturbances, and since
then Alaskan Indians have drawn the
inference that human sacrifice Is nee
essary to stop earthquakes.
The most notable earthquakes in the
United States have been those of New
Madrio, Mo-, in 1911; California in
1868, and Charleston, S. c.. in August.
1856.
That at New Medrid was the most
singular disturbance in earthquake his
tory, in that il extended yer a period
of three years. Repeated shocks fol-
lowed from months to months and
whole forests sometimes were seen to
wave like a green sea. A strip of land,
sixty by thirty miles, sank and became
q lake. which in recent years has been
partially drained. Loss of life was in
considerable. owing to the fact that the
country was very sparsely settled.
Earthquakes of 1868 involved the en-
tire coast of California and destroyed
millions of dollars worth of property.
In the famous Charleston earth
quake on August 81, 1886, thirty-two
people were killed, 100 injured and
property to the extent of So, 900 900 de-
stroyed. Nearly every house in Char
lesion was damaged, and for weeks a
large part of the population lived in
tents.
1t is a strange fact that science has
never determined exactly the cause of
earthquake phenomena.
The most generally accepted theory
is that water breaks through crevices
and penetrates the pockets of molten
matter in the earth. Steam is gener-
ated which finds ven in volcanic erup-
tons and earthquakes.
Father Timateo Bertelli, an Italian,
and other inventors, have devised and
improved the ~seismograph, which rec
ords the vibrations of an earthquake.
1t is also valuable in that it frequently
gives warning days before the catas-
trophe occurs.
Sometimes a shock is preceded for
days by minute earth vibrations not
p%erceptible to ordinary sense The
delicate needle of the seismograph
traces these movements upon a sheet
of smoked paper unit the whole looks
like a skein of tangled silk.
If the changes are constant and
abrupt il can be determined that an
earthquake of grave import may oc,
cur.
Animals appear to possess a sixth
sense which often warns them of an
impending earthquake. Some times
fowls are in a panic for days before a
seismetic shock, horses become timid
am weak, and COWS refuse the usual
quantity of milk.
Some people also are so delicately
organized that they feel danger in the
air. A woman living in a hotel at
Amalfi. Italy. left there the day before
the last earthquake, driven by some in.
definable terror, and at Nice and Ag.
ram people were known to flee from
those cities before disaster came.