Wonders of the Volcano, by Ascott R. Hope

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated.1880 Excerpt: ... CHAPTER V. EARTHQUAKES--CONNECTED WITH VOLCANOES--JORDLLA--PERU--EFFECTS OF AN EARTHQUAKE--EARTHQUAKE WAVES--CELEBRATED EARTHQUAKES OF ANTIQUITY--SICILY AND CALABRIA--LISBON--AMERICA--EARTHQUAKES IN BRITAIN--UPHEAVALS OF LAND. EARTHQUAKES were defined by Pliny as subterranean storms. Modern natural philosophers are by no means more agreed than about eruptions, as to the precise causes of these extraordinary disturbances, though the old theory has been given up which regarded them as a liquid wave surging in the interior of the earth, crumbling, cracking, and shaking the thin crust above. Still less can we accept the Japanese idea, for instance, of great whales creeping under the surface of the ground. The tendency is rather to explain them as the effect of an internal rupture or explosion that, not able to burst through the surface, expands or contracts the surrounding rocks, and thus spreads a wide ripple of motion among the strata on either side, with a splitting and trembling of the ground resting on these displaced foundations. One thing seems certain, that there is a close connection between the phenomena of the earthquake and of the volcano: if they be not brother and sister, they are at least first cousins. Disturbances of this kind are most marked in volcanic areas. An eruption is frequently preceded and attended by earthquakes in the case of some mountains; with others, the sudden disappearance of their smoking cap is the signal for the inhabitants around to expect a shaking of the earth; while earthquakes sometimes result in the throwing out of flames, smoke, steam, hot springs, and other familiar products of a crater. An earthquake has, therefore, been looked upon as an effort to set up a volcano, and a volcanic cone as a safety-valve for the sam...