Evening star., 1951-02-26
1850 Indio Earthquake
Held Greatest in History
Full Extent Of Damage Unknown;
Earth Rocked for Several Days
By Thomos R. Henry


The northern Indian earthquake Of
August Is may have been the greatest
in the history Of the world.
1t certainly was the greatest during
the century that records have been kept,
causing more or less havoc over at least
10000 square miles. 1t still is not possible
to check on how great was the damage
in Tibet and Burma.
These are the conclusions after analyz-
ing the recordings of seismographs all
over the world which have been reported
in the intervening period and in personal
observations of the devastated region.
The shocks came in a primitive area
from which 1t has been difficult to get
reports, and even now these are quite
fragmentary.
The greatest recorded previous earth
quake was in Columbia in 1906, but it
by no means reached the proportions of
the Assam earth tremors which lasted
for several days. The San Francisco
and japanese earthquakes were minor in
comparison, but they struck in much
more thickly populated areas. Results
of analysis Of the reports to date have
just been reported in Nature, official
journal Of the British Association for
the Advancement of Science.
The most direct observations were
those of a British army officer and his
wife who happened to be camping on
the exact center of the disturbance at
the time the tumult started. Both Capt.
F.. Kingdom Ward and Mrs. Kingdom
Ward came uninjured out of an expert
ence unique in history.
There was an appalling noise and the
earth began to shudder violently" the
captain wrote Nature. "The outlines Of
the landscape, visible against the stormy
sky were blurred-every ridge and tree
fuZZy-as though it were moving up and
down. 1t felt as though powerful ram
were hitting against the earth beneath
us with the persistence of kettle drum.
had exactly the sensation that thin
crust was breaking up like an ice foe
and that we were all going down to.
gether through an immense hole into the
interior of the earth. It was difficult to
separate the noise made by the earth
quake itself from the roar Of rock ava
lanches. The end was marked by quick
succession of sharp explosions clear and
loud, each quick and distinct, like ack-
ack, in the sky to the northwest. This
was the cease fire'!"
Curiously enough, clock and watch
inside the tent continued to keep perfect
time during all this tumult and the con-
tents of the tent did not shift from their
places. They seemed to take part in the
vibratory movement Of the earth itself.
The tent was pitched near bank Of the
La I'll River.
THE torrent was an extraordinary
sight" Capt. Kingdom reports.
1.-THE previous day the sparkling water,
of beautiful blue-green tint, revealed
every boulder as it flowed swiftly down
its rocky bed. Now is was dark coffee
colored and thick with foam. It had
risen more than four feet. Then, for
day after day and night after night,
tremor followed tremor. Many were
severe and always were preceded by q
short roar, like distant thunder clap"
The quake, Natures report explains.
occurred in one of the natural earth-
quake regions of the earth, due to the
disturbance caused in the sub-cruSt of
the earth by the rising Himalayas. Ordi-
nary processes of mountain building are
considered sufficient to explain most
earthquakes. Stresses are piled up until
something must give way. Even this,
however, is considered hardly sufficient
to account entirely for this champion of
all earthquakes and there are conjec-
lures as to supplemental causes.
The Himalayas, it is believed, are rela-
lively young mountains. still undergoing
rapid growth process. In older noun
tain regions, such as those of the Alps
and the Appalachians, where growth is
slow, earthquakes seldom occur and are
of minor proportions.
The majority of the records of the
Assam earthquake, including many from
observatories in the United States, now
have been received for correlation in
England and it is unlikely that conclu-
sions will be altered materially by any
not yet received.
Conditions appear to indicate other
severe shocks in approximately the same
region.