OCR Text |
Show 420. EARTHQUAKE IN CALABRIA, A,D, 1783. of glass (see cut No. fl9l); and, as a great por.tion of them remained open after the shocks, it is very poss1ble that this country was permanently upraised. . . In the vicinity of Oppido, the central pomt from which the earthquake diffused its violent moveme~ts, many ~ouses.were s.wallowed up by the yawning :art.h, wh1ch cl~sed 1mm~d1ately ver them. In the adjacent d1stnct also of Cannamar1a, four ~arm-houses, several oil-stores, and some spacious dwellinghouses were so completely engulphed in one chasm, that not a vestige of them was afterwards discernibl~. . The sa~e ph~nomenon occurred at 'ferranuova, S. Chnstma, and Smopoh. The Academicians state particularly that when deep abysses had opened in the argillaceous strata of Terranuova, an~ houses had sunk into them, the sides of the cha8ms closed w1t.h such violence, that, on exc.avating afterwards to recover articles of value, the workmen found the contents and detached parts of the buildings jammed together so as to become on~ c?mpact mass. It is unnecessary to accumulate examples .o f sihm' ilar o1c-currences; but so many are well authenticate~ d?nng ~ 1s eart 1- quake in Calabria, that we may, without hes1tatwn.' yield assent to the accounts of catastrophes of the same kmd repeated fl.gain and aO'ain in history, where whole towns are declared to have been e~gulphed, and nothing but a pool of water or tract of sand left in their place. On the sloping side of a hill n~ar Oppi~o, a grea~ ~hasm opened, and, although a large quantity of soil was precipitated Ch<mn,flmned by tha carthguaka qf 171l3, near Oppido, itl Ca/abp•{a. DIMENSIONS OF NEW FISSURE!:! AND CHASMS. 421 into the abyss, together with a considerable number of olivetrees and part of a vineyard, a great gulph remained after the shock in the form of an amphitheatre, five hundred feet long and two hundred feet deep (see cut No. 9l3). According to Grimaldi, many fissures and chasms, formed by the first shock of February 5th, were greatly widened, lengthened, and deepened by the violent convulsions of March fl8th. In the territory of San Fili, this observer found a new ravine, half a mile in length, two feet and a half broad, and twenty-five feet deep; and another of similar dimensions in the territory of Rosarno. A ravine nearly a mile long, one hund·red and five feet broad, and thirty feet deep, opened in the district ofPlaisano, where, also, two gulphs were caused-one in a place called Cerzulle, three quarters of a mile long, one hundred and fifty feet broad, and above one hundred feet deep, and another at La Fortuna, nearly a quarter of a mile long, above thirty feet in breadth, and no less than two hundred and twenty-five feet deep. In the district of Fosolano three gulphs opened: one of these measured three hundred feet square, and above thirty feet deep; another was nearly half a mile long, fifteen feet broad, and above thirty feet deep; the third was seven hundred and fifty feet square. Lastly, a calcareous mountain, called Zefirio, at the southern extremity of the Italian peninsula, was cleft in two for the length of nearly half a mile, and an irregular breadth of many feet. Some of these chasms were in the form of a crescent. The annexed cut (No. ~4) repre- Chamt inl/11 llillqfSt. A11gelo1 n~ar Soriano1in Ca/al;ria1 cau1cd by tht larl4!luakl of 1783. |