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The East Indian Cyclone

The East Indian Cyclone image
Parent Issue
Day
1
Month
December
Year
1876
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

[From the New York Herald.] Tho awful visitatiou of nature's power, which has, accordisg to the reports from Caleutta, swept out of eAstence 120,000 human beings in Eastern Bengal [some accounts place the number of lives lost at 300,000], filis the civilized world with horrer, and must bo regarded as tho most appalling calamity of modern times. The región affected by this singularly terrible occurrence is located at the northern extremity of the Bay of Bengal, and is intersected by the many outlets of the Ganges and Brahmapootra rivers, whicb drain tne great southern slopes of the Himalaya mountains. The land itself is therefore low and flat, being mainly of alluvial formation, and consequently much exposed to the overflow of the sea duringf violent storms. These frequently visit thia región and cause immense damage and even extraordinary loss of life, but in the latter respect the recent cyclone has produced unparalleled destruction. The causes that combine to develop cyclones have been frequently explained in the Herald, and it is only necessary to state that these 'great revolving storms owe their origin to the contact of vast volumes of the atmosphere of unequal temperatures and humidities. Once the cyclone is de veloped the surrounding air revolves about a movable center with an inward and upward spiral motion, which tends to lift from the earth's surface everything that can be affected by the tremendous force of the wind. Thus buildings, trees, animáis and even immense masses of detached rock are raised as if thev were feathers in the vortex of "the ascending column of air, which can only be compared to an inverted atmospheric maelstrom. The effect on water surfaces is to raise the element inlo the form of a grea, truncated cone, which is carried along in the direction of the track of the center of the cyclone and over the low lands of the sea coast, and even far inland, where the topography presents no barriere. The violence of the storm increases toward the center of the cyclone, the lifting power being of course greatcst at that part where the winds attain their highqst velocity. The patha of these meteora are invariably parabolic curves, with the apex or turning point genei aUy in or about the twentieth degree of latitude; but the conformation of the land frequently modifies the curvature according as the cyclone is more or less violent. Now, the región devastated by the East Indian cyclone is in the angle of ninety degrees formed by the coast of Bengal with that of British Burmah. The course of the storm led it in a northwesterly and northerly direction until it reached latitude twenty degrees north, where ifrbegan to curve to the northeastward, forcing the immense mountain of water whioh it had raised into the sharp angle referred i o, whence there was no chance for the waters to escape laterally when brought in contact with the land. Tho constquence was that the watervolume was swept up the inclined plane represented by the gradually shoaliag bottom of the sea in front of the low alluvial lande, and poured with whelming violence over the country, destroying everything in its sudden and terrible onset.

Article

Subjects
Old News
Michigan Argus