It would seem that the Mexican volcanoes also belong to the same region of disturbance. Near the Isthmus of Panama the great Cordillera of the Andes is reduced to the height of about 800 feet, and beyond begins the continuation of the volcanic chain in Central America and Mexico. Nor are the volcanoes of the West Indian or Caribbee Islands wholly disconnected with the region of disturbance in Southern America. And it is rather singular that even the earthquakes which have occurred in the valley of the Mississippi seem to be connected with the West Indian and South American volcanic region. The violent earthquakes which took place at New Madrid in 1812 occurred at exactly the same time as the earthquake of Paranas, ‘so that it is possible,’ says Sir Charles Lyell, ‘that these two points are part of one volcanic region.’
(From the _Daily News_, September 18, 1868.)
On August 13, 1868, one of the most terrible calamities which has ever visited a people befell the unfortunate inhabitants of Peru. In that land earthquakes are nearly as common as rain-storms are with us; and shocks by which whole cities are changed into a heap of ruins are by no means infrequent. Yet even in Peru, ‘the land of earthquakes,’ as Humboldt has termed it, no such catastrophe as that of August 1868 had occurred within the memory of man. It was not one city which was laid in ruins, but a whole empire. Those who perished were counted by tens of thousands, while the property destroyed by the earthquake was valued at millions of pounds sterling.
Although so many months have passed since this terrible calamity took place, scientific men have been busily engaged until quite recently in endeavouring to ascertain the real significance of the various events which were observed during and after the occurrence of the earthquake. The geographers of Germany have taken a special interest in interpreting the evidence afforded by this great manifestation of nature’s powers. Two papers have been written recently on the great earthquake of August 13, 1868, one by Professor Von Hochstetter, the other by Herr Von Tschudi, which present an interesting account of the various effects, by land and by sea, which resulted from the tremendous upheaving force to which the western flanks of the Peruvian Andes were subjected on that day. The effects on land, although surprising and terrible, yet only differ in degree from those which have been observed in other earthquakes. But the progress of the great sea-wave which was generated by the upheaval of the Peruvian shores and propagated over the whole of the Pacific Ocean differs altogether from any earthquake-phenomena before observed. Other earthquakes have indeed been followed by oceanic disturbances; but these have been accompanied by terrestrial motions, so as to suggest the idea that they had been caused by the motion of the sea-bottom, or of the neighbouring land. In no instance has it ever before been known that a well-marked wave of enormous proportions should have been propagated over the largest ocean-tract on our globe, by an earth-shock whose direct action was limited to a relatively small region, and that region not situated in the centre, but on one side of the wide area traversed by the wave.