VOLCANOES AND EARTHQUAKES

Pelorus Guardian and Miners' Advocate., Volume 29, Issue 47, 19 June 1917, Page 8

VOLCANOES AND EARTHQUAKES

SOME HISTORICAL DISASTERS

Salvador, the scene of the most recent disastrous earthquake, is the smallest but most thickly populated of the Central American Republics, consists of a atrip of territory, stretching between Hondui'as and the Pacific, its area of rather more than 7,000 square miles, containing a population of over a million. Except for a narrow seaboard, Salvador is a high plateau some 2,000 ft above the sea, furrowed by river valleys and broken by numerous volcano cones, most of which are extinct. At the foot of the eastern slopes of the chief of these so-called extinct volcanoes, San Salvador, whose cone rises to a height of 8,360 ft, lies the city of San Salvador in the midst of a fertile plateau, and enjoying a healthy and equable climate. Founded in 1528, it prospered till 1854, when it was a fine, welbbuilt city, adorned with numerous splendid buildings, and containing a population of over 25,000. In April of that year, however, it was visited by one of the many earthquakes which often shake the volcanostrewn Republic, and was utterly destroyed. The town of Santa Teela, or Nueva San Salvador, was then built about ten miles to the south-west of the old capital, and became the seat of the Government till 1858, when the old capital was restored. Violent earthquake shocks visited it in 1873, 1870, and again in 1891, and the present city, which has a population of about l>o,000, consists of houses mostly of one storey, with walls built thick to resist the earthquake shocks, and enclosing pleasant courts or patios. It possesses line Government buildings, and a handsome cathedral not yet finished. The capital is connected with the port of Acajutla by a railway about ninety miles in length, and possesses many prosperous industries.

A volcano and a volcanic region are to be avoided. Zorion estimates that since earthquakes and volcanic eruptions were first recorded by man more than 13,000,000 people have lost their lives through them, while the damage to property is beyond calculation. But familiarity breeds contempt even of volcanoes, while they aro quiescent, and men build their homes and cities at the very base of the monsters, trusting in the uncertain law of averages so far as volcanoes are concerned, Central'and South America and, to a less extent, the North, have always been, subject to terrific volcanic outbursts and earth shocks, though owing to the comparative sparsity of the population the loss of life has not been so appaling as in some of the old world outbreak in the midst of densely peopled areas. The most notable of recent years so far as loss of life is concerned, was the great eruptions of Mount Pelee, which destroyed the town of St. Pierre in the island of Martinique, and swept over 30,000 souls into eternity. At Leon de Caracas, Venezuela, nearly 12,000 perished in an earthquake on March 26, 1812, and in 1868 Arequipa, Iquique, Tacua, Chencha, and many small towns of Peru and Ecuador were destroyed, 25,000 lives being lost. On April 18, 1906, the world was shocked to hear that San Francisco had been laid in ruins by an earthquake. The seismic wave was destructive on this occasion on a narrow belt for a length of 400 miles and 50 miles in breadth, resulting in terrible loss of life and immense damage. On Monday, January 14, 1907, an earthquake occurred in Jamaica, Kingston, the capital, being shaken into ruins in the space of 20 seconds with the loss of over 1000 lives. Japan has been a heavy sufferer from volcanic eruptions and earthquakes, as have Java and some of the other islands of the eastern archipelagos. The terrific outbursts at Krakatoa, an island in the Strait of Simda, between Java and Sumatra, in 1883, were among the most violent volcanic disturbances of modern times, though fortunately not attended by any great loss of human life. In Europe, Italy has been an especial victim of subterranean disturbances. Laeonta estimates that in the kingdom of Naples alone at least 111,000 inhabitants out of a total of 6,000,000 lost their lives, by the effect of earthquakes in a period of 75 years, between 1783 and 1857. The dreadful earthquakes Avhich devastated Calabria and Sicily a few years ago with appalling loss of life are still fresh in the memory.