Earthquake in Hawaii

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Mar 21, 1871

Earthquake in Hawaii.

NEW YORK, March 13.—Special dispatches give further particulars of a severe earthquake at the Hawaiian Islands. It occurred at 10 o'clock in the evening, and was very severe. Walls of all stone or adobe buildings, with few exceptions, were injured, and the college buildings at Punahou were damaged extensively. Many persons rushed into the streets from their beds. Three distinct motions were felt, shaking horizontally, then perpendicularly. The finish was a distinct wave-like motion from the southwest. The violence of the shock lasted about twenty seconds, and the whole fully a minute. At Lahaina, much damage was done to buildings, but the seminary buildings suffered most, the walls being shaken to pieces, though they did not fall. At Makee's plantation a cattle train was badly injured, but other localities did not suffer much. At Mellakai nearly all the stone walls were leveled and the frame of a building was thrown down. The road to Laper was destroyed. At Lahaina the shock was very severe. Clefts opened in different parts of the island, and valleys were filled with masses of earth and rock shaken from the mountain tops. On Hawaii, but little damage was done, the Hilo and Kau districts receiving a slight shaking. The volcano is very active, but evidently had no participation in this earthquake. Persons in two different islands state that a bright light was visible in the eastern sky. Chimneys on sugar plantations suffered but little. Several shocks, not severe, have been experienced since.

SAN FRANCISCO, March 13.—The earthquake on February 19th at the Hawaiian Islands was general throughout the group. On Lanai, great rocks were hurled down from the cliffs, and some small valleys rendered uncultivable by the debris from the mountains, and the great wonder is that no lives were lost. The shocks commenced at Honolulu at 10:07 P. M., three in number, in rapid succession, lasting fully a minute; at other islands, the time was different, at Lahaina the last occurring at 11:24 o'clock.