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Show 410 EARTHQUAKE OF QUITO, 1797 - OUMANA, 1797. . -On the morning of February 4th., 17~7, ~he Qutto, 1797. . Q 't and the surroundmg d1str1ct, f T guragua 1n ut o, volcano o un f th to north and twenty leagues for forty leagues, ro~ sou d an undula~ing movement, which from west to ~ast, expe~~~c:ame shock was felt over a tract of lasted four mmutes. 1 ues from south to north, from one hundred and sevendty cagh ndred and forty from west to P . t Popayan . an one u . . IUra 0 f th -ea t' o t 11 e n.v er Napo · In the smaller d1str1et, east, ro~ e :s wn was levelled to the ground ; and fir.st mentiOned, eve:~d t~ther places, were buried under masses R10bamba, Quero, . At the foot of 'l~unguragua the detached from the ~ountamsi places. and streams of water and earth was rent open m sev,~ra ured o~t overflowing and wasting fetid m~d, called ~~~::a~n~othousand feet broad, the water of everythmg. In hv d /the height of six hundred feet; and the these flood~ reac e o the cour~c of the river' so as to form ~~;.,d:h~:~ i:::::_;~ces conti:~:: :':: rr~:· ~:~.~!~1!;~~~:: Flames and suffocatmg vapo~rs h ~s The shocks continued and killed all the catt:eh on ~ s s t~: 5.th of April they recurred all February and Marc. ' an on fi t We are told that . 1 ch v10lence as at rs · ' . With a most as mu . the district most shaken was entu·ely the form of the surface m iven whereby we may altered, but no exact measure~ents areubgsl'dence ~ Indeed it . 1 d f elevatiOn or s · estimate t le egree o . tl . mediate neighbourhood of would be difficult, except m. let Imd rd of comparison, if the 1.t · ny certam s an a the sea, to ou am a 1 d the narrations seem to levels were really as much a tere as imply. h 14th of December, C 1797 -In the same year, on t e d nmana, · b movements, an the small Antilles experienced su terrahnaeka:n down by a ver-f h t wn of Cumana was s h four-fifths o t e o h 1 1 f Mornerouge, at t e Tl £ m of t e s 1oa o . tical shock. le or h ed by an upheavmg mouth of the river Bourdones, was c ang of the groundt. 230 Gilberts, Annalen, bd. vi., p.67. • Cavanilles, Journ. de Phys. tome xlix., p. . Humboldt's Voy., P· 317• · 309 t Humboldt's Voy., Relat. Hist., part 1., P• • CARACCAS, 1790-SICILY, 1790-JAVA, 1786. 411 Caraccas, 1790.-In the Caraccas, near where the Caura joins the Orinoco, between the towns San Pedro de Alcantara and San Francisco de Aripao, an earthquake on St. Matthew's Day, 1790, caused a sinking in of the granitic soil, and left a lake eight hundred yards in diameter, and from eighty to one hundred in depth. It was a portion of the forest of Aripao which subsided, and the trees remained green for several months under water*. Sicily, 1790.-0n the 18th of March in the same year, at S. :\faria di Niscemi, some miles from Terranuova, near the south coast of Sicily, the ground gmdually sunk down for a circumference of three Italian miles, during seven shocks; and, in one place, to the depth of thirty feet. It continued to subside to the end of the month. Several fissures sent forth sulphur, petroleum, steam, and hot water; and a stream of mud which flowed for two hours, and covered a space sixty feet long, and thirty broad. This happened far from both the ancient and modern volcanic district, in a group of strata, consisting chiefly of blue clayt. Java, 178f>.-About the year 1786 an earthquake was felt at intervals, for the period of four months, in the neighbourhood of Batur, in Java, and an eruption followed. Various rents were formed which emitted a sulphureous vapour; separate tracts sunk away, and were swallowed by the earth. Into one of these the rivulet Dotog entered, and afterwards continued to follow a subterraneous course. The village of Jam pang was buried in the ground, with thirty-eight of its inhabitants, who had not time to escape. We are indebted to Dr. Horsfield for having verified the above mentioned factst. • Humboldt's Voy., Relat. Hist., part ii., p. 632. t Ferrara, Campi. fl., p. 51. t Batav. Trans., vol. viii., p. 141. |
