Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1915-03-05

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NWVkN vote In this or any coun-
try. An earthquake is the
one thing about which 1t
cannot be said that one can become
used to anything.
The Italians and the Japanese have
had personal experience with earth
quakes far beyond most peoples The
frequency of earthquakes, considering
those of all amplitudes, is not, how
ever, generally realized.
The globe, indeed, may be said hard
ly ever to be free from seismic dis
turbances of some kind somewhere,
according to Dr. Edmund Otis Hovey,
the we'll known authority of the Amer
lean Museum of Natural History.
The average of all recorded shocks
is more than fifteen a day.
There are between fifty and sixty
heavy shocks year.
The bare enumeration by de Mon
tessus de Ballore of those occurring
In 1903 alone fills book of 600 tabu-
lated pages, This author has compiled
the data and plotted the position of
159,7S1 earthquakes that had been re-
corded up to the end of 1913.
Charleston, San Francisco, King
ston and Avezzano came to mind as
Doctor Hovey gave the above informa-
ton, but they left unaccounted for so
very many earthquakes that, even add.
ing Messina and Pompeii, as was done
after another moments searching into
the past, the writer ventured to sug-
gest 1t was a fortunate thing for us
along the eastern coast of the North
American continent that we were COM
paratively SO free from this sort of
attack.
We are in the habit of thinking of
eastern North America as a region
free from earthquake Shocks" agreed
Doctor Hovey, but that impression
is erroneous, since New England has
experienced about $50 recorded shocks
since the Pilgrims landed at Ply
mouth.
Also, there have been at least four
geat earthquakes in the eastern half
of the continent within the last two
and half centuries. One on the
5th of February. 1868, affected the
st. Lawrence valley over an area
more than 500 miles long and 300
miles wide.
In 1811-12 heavy quakes occurred
in the central part of the Mississippi
valley. Strong shocks continued for
more than year, and evidence of
the sinking still persists in lakes and
submerged trees.
The southwestern part of the
United States was the center of an
earthquake shock January 4. 1S43, the
waves of which were felt at points
at least 800 miles apart. In 1886
occurred the Charleston earthquake,
an event still fresh in the minds Of
most of our population"
Doctor Hoyey was on the island of
st. Vincent, 100 miles due south of
Pelee, when the great eruption of
June 6, 1902, occurred, and he men
toned it the other day in connection
with the former general belief that
volcanic earthquakes were by far the
most numerous and destructive of all.
"On the other hand" he said, some
OF the most violent of historic erup-
lions have been unattended by Sc
we're earthquakes or have given rise
to shocks of merely local significance.
The island of Martinique, in the
French West Indies, lies within
-1arLadIv coiSp,in zcpn INIT S,,r;,, ~ ~, -
great eruptive activity of 1902,O3 was
free from earthquake shocks. This fact
is of particular interest, because the
eruptions We're of the most highly ex-
plosive character.
Although no vibrations were felt
upon the island of Martinique and no
subterranean noises were heard there,
dull sounds like the booming of dis
| tant cannon were heard the morning
of the great eruption of May s, 1902,
at Caracas, Venezuela, $50 miles dis.
tant, southwest, where people feared
that a naval battle was in progress
off their coast Similar booming was
reported from St. Kits, 200 miles
northwest of Martinique, and from
other regions.
Il myself was on the island of st.
Vincent, and felt several dull thuds,
as if some heavy object had fallen in
a neighboring room.
The noises seemed to come from
beneath the ground. and they were
due, in all probability, to subterran-
can explosions or to the pushing OF
lava into underground cavities, some
what on the principle of the water
hammer"
On the island of st. Vincent some