THE ’QUAKES IN MEXICO

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXII, Issue 147, 7 June 1932, Page 9

THE ’QUAKES IN MEXICO

SEVERAL SMALL TOWNS WIPED OUT. VOLCANO ERUPTING. Mexico City, June 5. Several small towns and villages were wiped out by the earthquakes. Many churches and other big buildings collapsed. The centre of disturbance appears ta have been the volcano Colima, which 1 ■ at present erupting. Guadalajara, where many casualties were earlier reported to have resulted from, the earthquake, is the capital of the State of that name. It stands at an altitude of 5200 ft. 381 miles northwest of Mexico City, and has a population of more than 150,000. One of the finest towns in Mexico, it ranks next in importance to the capital. The city is a rich agricultural ami manufacturing centre. The State of Colima, where 20 towns are said to have been destroyed, is in the valley of the Colima Biver. The capital, named the same as the State, has a population of 30,000. From the city caa be seen the Colima volcano (12,278 ft. and the El Nevado Mountain (14,370 ft. The Colima volcano was in eruption in 1869, 1881, and 1890. WEAKEST POINT OF THE EARTH. FORCES AT WORK IN THE ANDES Writing on April 17th last, a representative of the London “Observer” said that the eruption of nine volcanoes in the Chilean Andes and Patagonia last week lead geologists in the affected area to express the view that it might be the prelude to something worse. Earthquakes and the emission of poisonous gases were feared. He added:

“I do not find, however, much support for that view. Dr. H. H. Thomas, petrographer to the Geological Survey, discussing the matter yesterday, said the probability seemed to be that, as there were so many volcanoes in eruption simultaneously, it was more likely that the pressure of the subterranean forces would be relieved, and that the disturbances would gradually subside. ‘lf,’ Dr. Thomas pointed out, ‘it had been one volcano of a large size that had broken out after a long period of inactivity, it would have been more likely to produce a catastrophic eruption than a series of them.’

“The weakest part of the world is that, he said, which forms the belts of country bordering mountain chains, particularly where, like the Andes, they are near the seaboard. “The Andean Range, he remarked, is a known line of weakness in the earth’s crust, where there is an accumulation of subterranean forces always liable to get a breakage through, the disturbances recurring at no specified intervals.

“The history of Vesuvius and a great number of volcanoes shows, he recalled, that after long periods of quiescence they are liable to become active again. Mont Pclee, in the West Indies, had been long inactive before the catastrophic eruption in 1901; so, too, had Tarawera, in New Zealand—so long, indeed, that a lake had formed in its crater, when it suddenly erupted in the latter half of last century, destroying the beautiful pink terraces in the North Island and doing a great amount of damage. “In the eruption of Krakatoa, in the East Indies in the ’eighties, the dust went up so high that it practically encircled the earth and produced marvellous sunsets all over the world. Whether there will be similar atmospheric effects following the eruptions in the Andes depends upon their violence and the height to which dust, has flown. ’ ‘