It will suffice to report a few examples of these phenomena and of the effects that result from them in order to show that earthquakes have powerfully contributed to modifying the structure of the globe. We shall confine ourselves to the following citations, which we borrow from Monsieur Maupied:
“In 1819, a violent earthquake made itself felt at the mouths of the Indus. The shock propagated itself inland as far as Abénédabad; several cities were overthrown, and the surrounding countries sank over an extent of about twelve leagues in length by seven in width, and were engulfed by an irruption of the sea. Earthquakes analogous to the preceding are fairly frequent.
Let us recall only the subsidence of the coast of Arica, in Peru, during the earthquake of 1833; the subversion of the city of Tomboro, in Java, in 1815; the formation of the lakes of the Mississippi valley, around New Madrid, in 1811; the destruction of Lima, of a part of the coast, and of the city of Callao, in 1746. The earthquake of Saint-Domingue, in 1751, caused a sinking on the coast more than twenty leagues in length; in 1755, the famous Lisbon earthquake engulfed beneath the waters the quay, the ships, and a great number of victims; in 1762, horrible inundations took place in Bengal as a result of the Chittagang earthquake; the Calabria earthquake, in 1783, was accompanied by the formation of some fifty new lakes, not including the narrower abysses filled with water. At the same epoch, Hekla also made strong shocks felt, and a new island was seen to emerge from amid the waters, on the coasts of Iceland; in 1751, in the month of July, a mountain collapsed in Savoy, on the side of Sallanche, and caused great ravages.
In 1782, there were violent submarine commotions on the coasts of Formosa. The waves were raised with so much violence that they crossed almost the whole island.
In 1714, the mountain of Diableret, in Valais, collapsed suddenly and all at once.
In 1680, the subsidence of a mountain over
caverns filled with water caused a great inundation in Ireland.
In 1678, there was a similar one in Gascony, caused by the subsidence of certain parts of the Pyrenees mountains.
In 1618, the city of Pleurs, in Valtellina, was buried beneath the rocks at the foot of which it was situated.
In 1538, an earthquake raised a high hill of elongated form in the Phlegraean Fields, near Pozzuoli: it was called Monte-Nuovo, new mountain.
In 1692, there was a violent earthquake in Jamaica, in the part of Port Royal. The city was partly destroyed and inundated by the waters; two great mountains subsided, and a third split. It is believed in Jamaica that all the mountains are somewhat lowered.
In 1693, the island of Foren was engulfed after a violent earthquake.
In the time of Seneca, after a violent earthquake, the island Thérasine, today Santorini, was seen to emerge from the waves.—Pliny relates that, a short time afterward, another island emerged near Santorini, which was further enlarged by later eruptions; in 1707, this island was shaken by new earthquakes for the space of two months, and new lands appeared at some distance.
Plato relates that, in the Aegean Sea, Rhodes, Delos, and eleven other islands emerged from the bosom of the seas.
In Ovid’s Metamorphoses (book XV), Pythagoras relates that near Troezen a mountain had risen in the middle of a plain.
Seneca cites the earthquake of Mount Corycus, which made hitherto unknown springs of water gush forth; the mass of water that formed near Hydesse, in Caria; Tyre, he adds, was sadly celebrated for its collapses; Asia lost twelve cities at once. This mysterious scourge that traverses the world struck Achaia and Macedonia last year.
According to Capitolinus, under Gordian III, there was so violent an earthquake that several cities were engulfed.
Under the consulship of Gallienus and Fortunatus, Trabellius Palion describes an earthquake that made itself felt on all the shores of the Mediterranean and of its gulfs, in Asia Minor, at Rome, and in Libya; the earth opened in a great number of places, and salt water gushed from these openings. The sea covered several cities there.
Under Trajan, says Xiphilinus, the famous earthquake of Antioch took place, which lasted several days, lowered Mount Carasse and several other mountains, caused rivers to appear, and dried up others.
Under Tiberius-Nero, Laodicea, Thyatira, and Chios experienced an earthquake, according to Suetonius.
Under the reign of Antoninus, there occurred in Bithynia and in the Hellespont a furious earthquake, says Xiphilinus, by which several cities, and Cyzicus among others, were ruined.
Homer depicts Mount Ida, near Troy, as a volcanic mountain whose fires were still active and whose shocks raised the waves of the sea.
The Greek and Latin authors speak of a far greater number of earthquakes, of islands raised up, and of shores invaded by the Mediterranean.”
Let us cite one more example of mountains formed by these phenomena. At six days’ march from the city of Mexico there was, in 1759, a fertile and well-cultivated country, where rice, maize, and bananas grew in abundance. In the month of June, frightful earthquakes agitated the ground, and these earthquakes recurred without cease for two whole months. In the night of September 28 to 29, the earth underwent a violent convulsion; a tract of land several leagues in extent rose little by little and ended by attaining a height of fifty feet over a surface of ten square leagues. The ground undulated like the waves of the sea beneath the breath of the tempest; thousands of hillocks rose and sank in turn; finally, a chasm with an opening of nearly three square leagues opened: smoke, fire, burning stones, and ashes were hurled to a prodigious height. Six mountains arose from this yawning chasm, among which the volcano to which the name jorullo was given now rises five hundred and fifty meters above the former plain.