GREAT EARTHQUAKE.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1516, 12 August 1912, Page 5

GREAT EARTHQUAKE.

« APPALLING DESTRUCTION. HEAVY DEATH ROLL. TWO VILLAGES ENGULFED. THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE HOMELESS LIGHTHOUSES DISAPPEAR. By TcleeraDh-Press Association-CoDYrie'dt (Rec. August 11, 5.5 p.m.) London, August 9. Seismographs in England early yesterday recorded a great earthquake in East Europe, displacing the needle nine inches. Subsequently news was received of a prolonged earthquake in tho vicinity of Constantinople. Tho volcano Stromboli was reported to bo discharging thick smoke and lava with loud and prolonged explosions. ■ (Rec. August 12, 0.15 a.m.) Constantinople, August 11. The earthquako lasted- for thirty seconds, tho chief centre of tho disturbance being the Dardanelles. Terrible destruction was caused in tho town of Gallipoli, a seaport on the Dardanelles, and a Turkish naval station. Hero and at' Chauak (a (own with a population of about' 11,000 people) hardly a building is left undamaged. The shock was felt throughout the wholo region between Constantinople and Adrianoplo (ono of tho most populous towns in Eastern Turkey). On both sides of the Sea of' Marmora great damago was done, and many thousands of the inhabitants aro left homeless and without food and water. At the present time it is impossible to estimate the death roll with anything like accuracy, Owing to tho breaking of tho wires, telegraphic communication between Constantinople and tho rest of Europo has been interrupted, with the exception of a line via Odessa. At Chanak somo people were killed and many injured. Here tho hot springs overflowed, covering a large area, and then vanished through fissures caused by tho earthquako. Many stone buildings in the town, including a great church and a mosque, collapsed, while others are in ruins. One extraordinary feature of the disaster is tho fact that the front portions of houses on the seashore were destroyed, whereas the back portions were left standing. Tho wooden buildings withstood the shock better than tho others.

The captain of the steamer Virginia reports that the lighthouses 'nt Ganos (a village on the Sea of Marmora, 43 miles north east of Gallipoli) and at Hora have disappeared, and that ninny of the villages in the vicinity are in flames. The Virginia was unable to anchor owing to the ebullition of the sea. The captain of the steamer TCyvcli confirms tho report of tho Virginia's captain. He also statps that while his vessel was doubling Capes TTora and Ganos, the hoavy sea that was experienced compelled him to stop, and he was therefore unablo to render assistance to tho sufferers. Latest "information regarding the extent of tho disaster and the,loss of life received from fugitives by wireless messages, and from other sources, indicate that about one hundred people have been killed and six hundred injured. The village of MyriopMto has been destroyed, and two other villages have been engulfed, eighty persons boing killed and 300 injured.. Steamers and-torpedo boats have been requisitioned to convey provisions and medical stores to tho eufferers. THE LATEST. ESTIMATED DEATH-ROLL. The Constantinople newspapers estimate that a thousand people have lost their lives in the disaster, and that six thousand have been injured. Sydney, August 10. • The Rivorview College seismographs yesterday, shortly before noon, recorded a great but very distant tectonic earthquake, apparently 7000 miles away. [Tectonic earthquakes are caused by the replacing tor Bottling on a more solid basis) of the' rocks in the deepest structures of tho earth's crust.l