EARTHQUAKES.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume I, Issue 116, 26 April 1884, Page 2

EARTHQUAKES.

Earthquakes have at all times proved a prolific source of interevst and wondermerment, and have occuppied the attention of learned men from the most remote times. Various reasons have been assigned for their occurrence and as early as 435 b.c. Anaxagoras supposed that earthquakes were product! by “ subterraneous clouds bursting out into lightening, which shook the vaults which confined them.” Kircher, DesCartes and other philosophical writers supposed there were many vast cavities and caverns underground which had a communication with each other, some of which abounded with waters, others with gasses and exhalations of inflamable substances, such as nitre, sulphur, bitumen, &c,, and when those were brought into contact with each other stupenduous results followed. Later scientific writers of note such as Drs. Stuckley and Priestly have attributed earthquakes to electricity. But it is not our object to discuss the causeor origin of such wondrous phenomenon, but simply to narrate a few of their disastrous effects which we believe cannot fail to prove interesting to the majority of our readers. Amongst the earliest earthquakes of which we have any authentic record is the one accredited with having (in 373 b.c.) divided Euboea from the mainland, and made it the largest island in the 3£gean Sea. This fairest part of the known world has always been the centre of the most terrible and destructive convulsions, and in the course of 75 years the Kingdom of Naples alone lost 111,000 inhabitants by earthquakes. The terrible erruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79, which buried the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum in its ashes, has been too vividly described by Pliney to need more than passing mention. In 106 two whole cities in Greece were entirely swallowed up, and in 157 upwards of 150 cities in Asia, Pontus and Macedonia were destroyed. In 358 Nicomedia was again overturned and the whole of its inhabitants buried beneath its ruins. Constantinople was completely wrecked in 557, and many thousands of its inhabitants destroyed. In 742 Syria, Palestine and Asia were visited by an awful convulsion which destroyed upwards of 500 towns and occasioned a loss of life which surpassed all calculation. The next one of note occurred in Catania, Sicily, in the year 1137, when 15,000 persons lost their lives. This was followed, in 1158, by one in Syria, in which 20,000 perished. In 1268, in Cilicia, 60,000 perished ; and at Naples, on the sth December, 1456, 40,000 were destroyed. On the 26th February, 1531, 1,500 houses were destroyed, and upwards of 30,000 persons were buried beneath the ruins at Lisbon, whilst several large neighbouring towns were entirely engulpcd and lost sight of. In Naples again July 30, 1626, 30 towns and villiages were destroyed and 17,000 lives lost; and in 1607 Ragusa, a city on the Adriatic, was destroyed and 5,000 perished. A terrible earthquake, extending over three months, took place in 1667, at Schamaki, in Russia, in which 80,000 perished. There were two more remarkable and disastrous ones during the 17th century, one at Jamaica in 1692, in which Port Royal was entirely engulphed -10 fathoms deep and 3,000 souls perished; and the other in Cicily in September 1693, which overturned 54 cities and 300 villages. Not a trace of Catania and its 18,000 inhabitants were left, and more than 100,000 lives were lost. At the commencement of the 18th century on February 21, 703, Italy was again visited with this scourge and the town of Aquila was completely destroyed together with 5,000 of its inhabitants, and on the same day Jeddo, in Japan was engulphed and 200,000 perished with it. On the 3rd of November 1706, Abruzzi, a province in Italy was destroyed together with 15,000 souls. In May and June, 1716, 20,000 perished at Algiers, whilst Palermo with 6,000 lives was destroyed. This was followed by a fearful visitation in Pekin when nearly the whole of the city, with 100,000 inhabitants were swallowed up in a few seconds. Naples was once morevisitedd in 1732 and 1910 perished. In 17-16 the southern Continent of America experienced a shock, and Lima and Callao, on the western seaboard, was entirely demolished and 18,000 souls buried beneath their ruins. During 1750, and the two following years, Port Au Prince and Adrianople were engulphed and swallowed up. In September, 1754, at Grand Cairo half the houses, and upwards of 40,000 human beings were also destroyed. In the following year Quito and Kaschan in Persia, were destroyed and 40,000 perished in the latter place. In November of the same year occurred one of the most terrible and wide-spread earthquakes which the world has ever known. At Lisbon, in about eight minutes, upwards of 50,000 were swallowed up, and whole streets disappeared in the awful chasms which yawned in every direction. The cities of Combia, Oporto, and Braga suffered dreadfully, and St. Übes was engulphed. In Spain a large part of Malaga became ruins ; one half of Fez in Morocco, was destroyed, and more than 12,000 Arabs perished there. About half of the Island of Maderia became waste, and 2,000 houses in the island of Meteline were overthrown. This awful earthquake extended over 5,000 miles. In 1759, October 30, Balbec, in Syria, was destroyed, together with the whole of its inhabitants, numbering upwards of 20,000. Numerous ones followed at short intervals, and at Martinico 1,600 perished; and terribly destructive ones took place at Guatemala, Smyrna, Tauris, Messina and Eyingham, in the course of 10 years, the latter place alone losing upwards of 5,000 lives. In 1794 Central America suffered, and at Quito 40,000 people were buried in one second. Again, in 1806 Naples lost 6,000 lives, whilst 12,000 were swallowed up in one instant at Caracas, in 1812. In 1819 a severe shock was felt in India and the district of Kutch sank out of sight, carrying with it 2,000 persons. Jn 1882 Alleppo disappeared, and upwards of 20,000 souls perished with it. In 1829 and 1830, 12,000 met their deaths in Spain and Canton. In the year 1835 Calabria was twice visited, and 1,100 perished. Martinique suffered greatly in 1839, and in 1849 the island of Ternate was made a waste, and Mount Ararat overthrown, and 3,137 houses destroyed. In 1842, 5,000 lives were lost at St. Domingo, and during the following year Poit-a-Petre was completely devastated. In 1851, at Rhodes a mountain fell over crushed and buried a whole village containing upwards of 600 inhabitants. In the same year Southern Italy was laid in ruins and 11,000 lives were lost. Passing by a number of minor ones the next conspicious one for its fatality occurred at the Moluccas 1856, and 3,000 live were lost. At Candia,Rhodes, and other Islands in the Mediterranean during the same year nearly 800 lives were lost, On the 16th of December, 1857, an awful one again visited illfated Calabria and numerous towns were completely blotted out and upwards of 10,000 souls launched into eternity in a few moments. In March, 1859, Quito was once more wrecked and 5,000 of its population swept off, while Mendoza on the same continent lost 7,000 lives and the gieater portion of the city. Numerous destructive ones have ocourred of a more recent date but which have been unattended with with that fearful sacrifice of life which has rendered the majority of those above enumerated so conspicuous, and the last one in the Straits of Sunda is of such recent occurence as to be fresh in the minds of all our readers. After reading the above horrible records we surely must feel grateful that though we are frequently visited by the terrible destroyer it is always during his playful moods and the effect is only just sufficient to afford variety and a little welcome excitement.