The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1906-04-22

if il is connected with a clock by some
electric or other attachment, all the
main objects may be approximately OBJ
tanned. These are the general princi-
pies of seismographs: and by heavy
penduIums, by inverted pendulums, bv
brackets al right angles. and by in
genious recording diagrams which
themselves may move by clockwork
very good data have been secured.
They all show that the movements of
any particle in the earth are exceed
ingly complex and difficult to follow.
There was no automatic seismograph
in eastern North America at the time
of the Charleston shock, but since then
number have been established.
Earthquakes have been specially studi-
ed in Japan and Italy. In the former
country there is chronological socie-
ty, with proceedings which now fill
several volumes.
THE CAUSES OF EARTHQUAKES.
The causes of earthquakes are OBJ
scure and, beyond question, not ALWAYS;
the same. If along great plane of
weakness in the earths crust one side
drops or rises, a shock will result at
each movement. This is what is called
faulting in geology, and it's results ara
or wide distribution. If there is a coli
lapse of unsupported, everything rock,
because underlying material has been
removed in solution, as in the produce
ton OF caves; in the movement of fused
rock, as in the eruptions of lava; or
artificially, as in mining-an earth
quake results If again, steam in the
interior bursts into a cavity at high
pressure, there will result an explosion
a chr IL Tif1al lxr
rock is driven into a fssure, like a
great wedge in a stick of timber, a
series of violent shocks will ensue. All
these are correct corollaries Of the ,
strains and consequent readjustments
in the earth. and while biologists do
their best with the data in hand to
reach we'll based conclusions, yet the
difficulty of discovering just what caus-
ed the Charleston shocks, which origin
ated eight and twelve miles below the
surface, is apparent Human knowl-
edge, unfortunately, has its limitations.
VOLCANOES.
Uncivilized man attaches a PERSONAL
ity to all the forces of nature. His
world is peopled with spirits which are
either friendly or hostile to his inter-
ests, and he is ever on the alert to
We can but fairly imagine the hold
which Volcanoes must have had upon
him in primitive times, or the terrible
nature of the personalities which in
savage lands he attributes to them to-
day, the dread agents of life and death.
Even among the earlier civilizations of
which We have the best records the\
role which they played was scarcely
different, and they gave rise to myths
and legends of a most Interestingly
character. No one of Intelligence at
tributes personality to them to-day,
but as agents for the punishment of
moral delinquencies they are unfortu-
nately still regarded as instruments in
the hands of the Deity.
Volcanoes were ever before the an
cient peoples of the Mediterranean
basin. The towering cone of Etna, TO-
900 feet and more above the sea. loom
ed large before the mariners who coast
ed the shores of Sicily. To the north
the Aeolian Islands (now the Lipari
group possessed the cones of Vulcano
and Stromboli. Still farther north rose
Monte Somma, the old and apparent
ly dead cone of Vesuvius; but III the
Phlegraean Plain there was no lack Of
mild exhibitions of heat and on the
island of Ischia there was one active
vent.
INIT Grecian Archipelago, Santorin
gave from time to time grand out
breaks. We may indeed wonder wheth-
er, had there been no volcanoes, and
none of their attendant hot springs,
caverns with mephitic gases, and sui
phurOus fumaroles, we should have
ever inherited the conceptions of the
'lower world" of the fiery pit with it's
burning birthstone, or of the doom of
the lost; or whether we should possess
to-day anything corresponding to the
myths which describe the trips of
heroes to the abodes of the dead or
should have the sixth book of the
Aeneid," the Divine Comedy" ofTa
large part of the current speech OF
theology.
VESUVIUS.
Vesuvius is much the most instructiySa&
of all the volcanoes. 1t stands in pME
region the historic records of whic&E
date far back, and we have q very
complete catalogue of it's outbreaks
since 70 A. d. The geological struc-
ture of the region is well understood,
and the details of the volcano have
been worked out with almost micro
scopic care. Tt combines moreover the
characters both of the cones built up
of volcanic ash and of those composed
of flows of lava.
Nesuvius is set upon the Campanian
plain, in the angle between the main
range Of the Apennines and the south
westerly spur which they send off in
the ridge of Monte San Angelo. Deep
borings at Naples have revealed
of cretaceous limestone, up
on which rests a stratum Of Eocene
sandstone $50 feet thick. Next these
are 700 feet of calcareous marine sands,
with no sign of volcanic products.
Then follow 600 feet of sands with
marine shells and much volcanic ash,
bringing US to the surface. Evidently
Vesuvius began as a submarine vent,
and having built up a deposit 500 ftSet
thick by successive eruptions, in the
intervals of which the mollusks -four
ished, ii acquired subaerial character
and began to rear the old crater Of