A Year's Earthquakes

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Oct 11, 1877

A Year's Earthquakes

Manifestations of internal force beneath the earth's crust, in the shape of either earthquakes or volcanic eruptions, occur, on an average, nearly three times a week, in greater or less intensity, in some part of the globe. Out of the 365 days of 1875 one hundred were marked by terrestrial disturbances, of which authentic records exist, while there must have been many shocks of more or less violence in unfrequented portions of the globe where volcanic forces are known to exist. The most serious of these observed phenomena occurred at Cucuta, New Granada, on the 16th, 17th, and 18th of May, when several towns and villages were destroyed; at San Cristobal and Guadalaxara, in Mexico, on February 11th; at Lifu Island, in the north Pacific, on March 28th; at Lahore, in the Punjab, and at Porto Rico on the 12th and 21st of December. All these places, it will be observed, are in the torrid zone, with the exception of Lahore, which is only a short distance north of the tropic of cancer. It is estimated that no fewer than 20,000 people lost their lives during the destruction caused by these earthquakes, while the damage to property was enormous.—London Times.