The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1922-12-21
American Naval Officers Expert
enCe Recalled by Recent
Disaster in Chile.
DROPPED AT FOOT or ANDES
Recedina Sea Leaves Ships Stranded
and Exposes Ocean Bottom, Then
Returns and Sweeps Every
thing Before 1t.

WHshington,-A single graphic eX-
ample of what a tidal wave in Chile
can do is provided by the experience
of an American officer, during a sim
ilar upheaval. when his vessel was
carried three miles up the coast, two
miles inland and dropped at the foot
of a range of the Andes mountains.
Earthquakes and tidal waves are
discussed in a bulletin -om the Ma
tional Geographic society which also
quotes from communication by the
late Rear Admiral L. G. Billings,
whose unparalleled adventure oc-
cured some hundreds of miles north
of the recently devastated towns.
"There is no natural phenomenon
more deeply interesting and yet SO lit
tie understood as the seismic disturb
ances which have from earliest his
tory devastated the earth and carried
terror and disnay into the hearts of
all survivors," says the bulletin.
"Up to 1903, It is computed by an
eminent scientist, Compile de Ballore,
there had been 159,7S2 recorded earth-
accurate records have been kept. they
have averaged about sixty a year.
There is comfort to the dwellprS in
most Of the world to know that 81 per
cent of recorded shocks have occurred
in two narrow, well-detined belts-one
called the Mediterranean. with 81 per
cent to its credit, and. the other the
Circum-Pacflc, with Al per cent
while the remainder of the world has
only 6 per cent, widely distributed.
U. S. Had One Major Quake.
"The United States taS been singu-
larry free from recorded seismic dis
turbance, perhaps the most disastrous
being in 1911, when !, very severe
shock occurred in the Mississippi val
ley south Of the Ohio, which was felt
in New York in one direction and in
the West --idies in another. This
earthquake changed the face of the
earth. A vast extent Of land was
sunk, lakes were formed, and even the
course of the Mississippi river was OBJ
structed for a time.
Most of the earthquakes occurring
of late years can hardly be classed
with the great ones of history, nearly
all of the destruction being caused by
uncomfortable fires. In the more
stable zones .ong periods may elapse
between shocks, as for Instance, in
Kingston, Jamaica, where 215 years
INTERVIEWED.
THE cause of earthquakes and vol
canoes is an elusive problem, not yet
settled to the satisfaction of the
scientist Tremors of the earth may
be caused by many things. The ex-
plosion of mines, falling in of caves,
slipping of rock strata. and many 9th.
er movements of the earth may cause
them but for the great shocks which
have required almost since the his
tory of the world began we = ust look
further.
Though manJ times there seems to
be an intimate connection between
earthquakes and volcanoes the law
regarding them has not been estab-
lished. Some remarkable condolences
have been observed in late years. The
terrible cataclysm of Mount Pelee.
which. on May S, 1902, almost Instant
ly killed 10000 inhabitants, was pre-
coded by the earthquake which in
January and April of the same year
wrecked a number Of cities In Me,ico
and Guatemala. The distance between
these points Is al least 1000 miles.
showing how deep-seated must have
been the disturbance, II, ds has been
suggested, there was communication,
between them. The great San Fran
cisco earthquake was preceded only