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Velocity Of Earthquakes

Velocity Of Earthquakes image
Parent Issue
Day
10
Month
February
Year
1888
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

The course which an earthquake runs ij usually very rapid. From the moment ■whcn the first shock was feit at Lisboa to he period when all was over, and nearly 30,000 people were killed, not more than four minutes elapsed. A few seconds, we loarn from "Our Earth aad lts Story," are usually a more frequent time for the shock or shocks to last. Yet, while Caracas in Venezuela was almost destroyed and 12,000 of its inhabitants killed by the earthquake of 1812, within. the limits of half a minute, there are cases in which constanr.ly recurring shocks last for weeks, months and even years, as if the laboring earth waa still trying t relieve itself of some of its superabundi_nt enerpy. For example, the Calabrian earthquake of February, 1783, was not quito flnisbed before December, 178G, and it is a common observation that the preliminary shock is usuully followed by one of greater Beverity, and this in its turn by others less intense, like the distant claps of thunrler which herald the passing storm. But in this brief span the most frighU'ul havoc can be wrought, and the wave of destruction propagated, from the most dfstant regions. The rumbling earth sound travels, for instance, at the rate of 10,000 or 11,000 feet per second, and the earth wave, on an average, about 1,200 feet in the same spaco of time, though in Charleston, as we havo seen, a much higher rate wns attained. -

Article

Subjects
Ann Arbor Argus
Old News