The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-06-01
Distribution of Volcanic Energy and
Proneness of All Parts of the
Globe to Seismic Disturbance.
PRINCIPAL GREAT DISASTERS
EARTHQUAKES RECORDED IN THE
TONES OF OLD EGYPT.
Americas Record-The Earthquake
Century-EruptiOn OF Krai<atOa i'm
the Summer of 1883

And there were voices and thunders. and light
nlngs: and there was great earthquake. such
as was not since men were upon the earth SO
And the great city was divided into three parts.
and the cities OF the nations fell:
And every island fed away and the mountains
were not found
When Nature speaks. Mankind. if not
dumb, is at least inarticulate. His voice,
e heard at all above the voice of Wrath.
Is heard only in cries Of fear. pain,
madness. II is only when the cataclysmic
disturbance is over that he regains-so much
OF him as is left-his powers Of coherent
thought and speech, and is able TO spec
ulate or philosophize, according TO his
mental bent and capabilities, on the dis
aster. its causes, its effects and its lessons.
Seismic and volcanic disturbances are
writ large on the pages of the worlds his
tory, and we have scriptural authority for
the assumption and belief that such dis
turbances shall figure largely in it's ult-
mate destruction. recorded in the
cerpts in the foregoing from the Book of
Revelations. There is a peculiar Apostle
ness between the record of the Martinique
disaster and the verses quoted for part
OF the island has fled away" and part Of
the mountain is not TO be found.
OF course the Martinique disaster was not
due TO an earthquake but to a volcanic
eruption, but the two classes OF disturb
ances closely inter-related that they
can be effectively considered only together
While all the world is liable to suffer from
the effects of earthquake, only relatively
small part of IT is subject in even the re-
notest degree, to the dangers of volcanic
eruption. Two great belts of volcanic en-
ergy encircIe the earth, the one east and
west, the other north and south, and Mar
Unique is in the former. not a great dis
tance to the east of its longitudinal bisec-
ton by the other in Central America Be
ginning in Central America where Gaute-
msla has more than half of Central Amer
fca's twenty-five craters most of them
active and the rest only dormant the trans
verse belt extends eastwardly through the
Caribbean sea, finding its next point of
great activity in the group of islands at its
eastward end. OF which Martinique is one
There are two or three volcanic rocks pro-
jecting above the waters in mid-Atlantic
and then We strike the Mediterranean, with
Etna in Sicily; Vesuvius with its record
of death and destruction; Stromboli
Lighthouse of the Mediterranean" which
has been active since long before the Chris
tian era. and the minor peaks any one of
which may at any time develop a major
catastrophe. of the Levant. Southern Asia
has goodly number, but it is not until
the East Indies, properly so-called, are
reached, that there is again a region of
known great activity. A long step-two-
thirds across the Pacifc-and Hawaii is
reached, with Mauna Loa and Kilauea.
almost always showing some sign of the
pent-up energy within; thence TO the start
ing point in Central America. The longi-
tudinal belt forms the backbone of the
American continent, starting in Alaska and
following the Rocky mountains through
British America and the United States,
with ramifcatiOn in the Cascade noun
tains OF Washington and Oregon; through
Mexico. where Popocatepetl expends its
fiery power through a cap of snow and ice,
1900 feet above sea level: through Central
America, intersecting the transverse belt
and incidentally making a serious problem
for the engineers who will have the 18TH
milan canal project in charge: following the
Andes to the farthest tip of South America;
crossing the southern pole and coming up
the eastern hemisphere to again intersect
the transverse belt about where the city
OF AMER was destroyed nineteen years ago:
UT the east coast OF Asia, showing its
greatest evidence in Fujiyama, Japan. and
the volcanic group in Kamschatka, .and so
on TO the north TO the beginning II is not
TO be understood that there are no vol
canoes outside these two regions. but only
that by far the greatest part of the known
volcanoes are found within them-probably
the only two great exceptions being Hecla.
IN Iceland and Kilama-Njaro. in Central
Africa.
LITTLE KNOWLEDGE
There are many theories, but little is act
ually known OF the causes-or the central
cause-from which these disturbances
come. But the one fact stands out clear.
ly-they are The Encyclopedia Britannica
which is i'm the public library and probably
in many private libraries in indianapolis
gives these theories and the little that is
known much more completely than is DOS
sible in a daily newspaper. so. for things
OF that nature, the reader is referred tc
that authority. or any other he may have
at hand
The earliest recorded earthquake was IN
Egypt, and the record is found in papyr
gathered from the tombs of her kings, nov
I'm the British Museum. 1t is there af
firmed that in the 1O2d year OF the fourth
notwithstanding 10 Varieties chronol
ogy the year 4133 b. g., or 100 years befor'
the Hebraic creation-there was a grea
earthquake. which destroyed many Egypt
ian cities and thousands OF lives.
To diverge mOmentarily from history
there is That other MISUNDERSTANDING
no doubt. but nevertheless persisten
through the ages-whch has been identified
in the minds OF many students anC
scholars with the Biblical deluge-the de
struction OF Atlantis IL is easy enough I,
soon at Ignatius DOnneHy's books on tn,
Baconian theory Of Shakspearean author
ship. for few OF Us know our Shakespeare
and fewer still our Bacon. but the candid
open-minded scholar must think man,
times. after reading his "Atlantis-Th,
Antedeluvian World" before he can brin,
himself TO say that the things contained
therein are not 80. There is no chronolog,
for this great event. and a short excerpt
not from Donnelly. but from Plato. vii
set forth all that Is known OF H. In tn,
Timaeus. Critias relates how his grand
father Critias had been told by Scion som,
remarkable events in early Athenian his