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THE EARTHQUAKES

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Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Oct 18, 1905

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 31, No. 42.

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THE EARTHQUAKES.

THE activity of Vesuvius and Stromboli just before the earthquake in Calabria and the reported formation of a new mountain in Samoa will confirm in the public mind the belief that when the great chimneys of the earth pour out lava it is preliminary to seismic disturbances.
In the scientific view this is a coincidence only. Yet these volcanic accompaniments to earthquakes are not infrequent. At the time of the India earthquakes last April our own, snow-topped Shasta belched forth mud and volcanic ashes and Pelée emitted clouds of smoke. Vesuvius was in eruption during the world-wide disturbances of August, 1903. The earthquakes in the Sunda Straits in 1883 followed an eruption of Krakatoa.
As a matter of fact earthquakes are due to a more superficial disturbance of the earth's crust than connection with volcanic phenomena would indicate. The shifting of strata is perhaps from ten to twenty miles below the surface.
Their lateral extent may perhaps be unlimited. The Charleston earthquake was felt in Canada. The August earthquakes of 1903 included Portugal, Sicily, the Pacific Coast, the Argentine Republic, and central New York. The Lisbon earthquake of 1755 sent its seismic wave across the sea to New England. The Calabrian shock was felt in France.
In point of violence and the number of fatalities this earthquake in southern Italy must rank among the important ones of recent years—with that in Manila in 1880, Spain in 1884, Charleston in 1886, Japan in 1891, Mexico in 1892, Guatemala in 1903. The most disastrous was that in India last April.
New York, if not immune from earthquakes, has experienced but few, and those of insignificance. For a city of skyscrapers an earthquake shock of severity would be an alarming visitation. But according to Professor Kemp, of Columbia, the skyscraper is safe, tho the occupants of top stories might suffer from seasickness.—New York World.