Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1903-06-03
QUAKEs IN THE MARIANAs.
Seismic Disturbances I'm the Philip
pines to Which the island OF
Guam Is Often Subjected.

Rev. M. S. Maso, assistant directo,.
of the Philippine weather bureau. has
recently contributed some. notable
articles to the Bulletin of that Office.
Inc Sun published a, map awhile ago,
showing the distribution of vol
canoes and earthquakes in the Phil
ippines, based upon two maps this
careful official produced. He pub
nshed In the latest Bulletin some
notes concerning volcanoes and
earthquakes in the Marianas archi.
PeIago, of which Guam is the largest
Island AS we are. specially interest
ed In the fortunes of Guam, some of
the facts he adduces are very timely.
says the New York Sun.
Guam suffered from two. severe
earthquakes last year, of which some
information was published at the time.
On May 16 violent vertical movement
caused all the inhabitants of the
town OF Agana to- rush out of their
houses. Sharp oscillations followed,
and though the earthquake, lasted
only a minute all the tiles of stone
houses were displaced and the walls
OF many houses were cracked.
Two wide earthquake cracks were
opened IN the earth about three miles
from the town and the sea withdrew
as far as the fringing coral reefs, but
thanks to- the slowness with which it
returned 1T did not overflow the linn
its of the beach. During the night
three less violent earthquakes oc-
cured
much severer earthquake oc-
cured a little before noon on. Sep
TENDER %. 1t is believed to have
oeen fully as violent as that of fs49.
which was one of the greatest earth
luakes recorded on the islands.
terrific subterranean noise was
heard, after which the earth began
to tremble slightly, and then the real
earthquakes occurred, continuing As
seconds, terrifying not only the ma
tives, but also the Americans. With
one or two exceptions all the stone
buildings in Agana suffered consid-
erably and required much repairing.
Some of the houses were complete.
Iy ruined. One house sank two feet
at che end and many houses were
distorted out of all proportion.
Walls Is and 20 inches thick swayed to
and fro, cracked and toppled over to
the ground. Tile roofs came down on
all Sides
The ground opened in many places
and spouted salt water from the crew.
ices. Huge rocks were dis1odged from
the hillsides and produced great land
slides. Many bridges were thrown
down, preventing the passage of vehi-
cles between the town of Agana and
the port of Pitt. some five miles dis
tant, where the warehouses are stu.
ated. Telephone connection was inter-
rupted owing to the falling of many
poles.
After the earthquake the whole is
land seemed to be in vibration, and in
the course of few days more than
100 smaller earthquakes were felt.
Masonry buildings were also shattered
on the island of Saypan. This ea.th-
quake was recorded by the seismo-
graph at Manila.
A table compiled by Father Maso,
covering six years, shows an average
of 13 earthquake days year at Aga
lid. InlS inquire uOuDtleSS is Tar from
representing the real seismic fire.
quency in the archipelago. for the rec
ord is confined to Agana and it is rea-
sonable to suppose that many other
seismic movements in the islands are
imperceptible in Guam. The fire.
queney of earthquakes at Agana dur
ing this period was greater than at
Manila, but considerably less than
that of central JaDaD