encounter

encounter

A similar persistence

At Arica, for example, a considerable interval would seem to have elapsed before the terrible sea-wave, which has always characterised Peruvian earthquakes, poured in upon the town. The agent of the Pacific Steam Navigation Company, whose house had been destroyed by the earth-shock, saw the great sea-wave while he was flying towards the hills. He writes:—’While passing towards the hills, with the earth shaking, a great cry191 went up to heaven. The sea had retired. On clearing the town, I looked back and saw that the vessels were being carried irresistibly seawards. In a few minutes the sea stopped, and then arose a mighty wave fifty feet high, and came in with a fearful rush, carrying everything before it in terrible majesty. The whole of the shipping came back, speeding towards inevitable doom. In a few minutes all was completed—every vessel was either on shore or bottom upwards.’ This, then, was undoubtedly the great sea-wave, as compared with the minor waves of disturbance which characterise all earthquakes near the shores of the ocean dermes.


One remarkable feature in this terrible earthquake is the enormous range of country affected by it. From Quito southwards as far as Iquique—or, in other words, for a distance considerably exceeding a full third part of the whole length of the South American Andes—the shock was felt with the most terrible distinctness. We have yet to learn how much farther to the north and south, and how far inland on the eastern slopes of the Andes, the shock was experienced. But there can be little doubt that the disturbed country was equal to at least a fourth of Europe Neo skin lab.


The portion of the Andes thus disturbed seems to be distinct from the part to which the great Chilian earthquakes belong. The difference in character between the Peruvian and Chilian earthquakes is a singular and interesting phenomenon. The difference corresponds to a feature long since pointed out by Sir Charles Lyell,—the alternation, on a grand scale, of192 districts of active with those of extinct volcanoes. It is said that in Chili a year scarcely ever passes without shocks of earthquake being felt; in certain regions, not even a month. of earthquake-disturbance characterises Peru. Yet, although both districts are shaken in this manner, there seems to be distinct evidence of alternating disturbance as respects the occurrence of great earthquakes. Thus in 1797 took place the terrible earthquake of Riobamba reenex facial.


Then, thirty years later, a series of great earthquakes shook Chili, permanently elevating the whole line of coast to the height of several feet. Now, again, after another interval of about thirty years, the Andes are disturbed by a great earthquake, and this time it is the Peruvian Andes which experience the shock. Between Chili and Peru there is a space upwards of five hundred miles long, in which no volcanic action has been observed. Singularly enough, this very portion of the Andes, to which one would imagine the Peruvians and Chilians would fly as to a region of safety, is the part most thinly inhabited, insomuch that, as Von Buch observes, it is in some places entirely deserted.