Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 1 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
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At
Valecillo, A Few Leagues From Valencia, The Yawning Earth Threw Out
Such An Immense Quantity Of Water, That It
Formed a new torrent.
The same phenomenon took place near Porto-Cabello.* (* It is
asserted that, in the mountains of
Aroa, the ground, immediately
after the great shocks, was found covered with a very fine and
white earth, which appeared to have been projected through
crevices.) On the other hand, the lake of Maracaybo diminished
sensibly. At Coro no commotion was felt, though the town is
situated on the coast, between other towns which suffered from the
earthquake. Fishermen, who had passed the day of the 26th of March
in the island of Orchila, thirty leagues north-east of La Guayra,
felt no shock. These differences in the direction and propagation
of the shock, are probably owing to the peculiar position of the
stony strata.
Having thus traced the effects of the earthquake to the west of
Caracas, as far as the snowy mountains of Santa Martha, and the
table-land of Santa Fe de Bogota, we will proceed to consider their
action on the country eastward of the capital. The commotions were
very violent beyond Caurimare, in the valley of Capaya, where they
extended as far as the meridian of Cape Codera: but it is extremely
remarkable that they were very feeble on the coasts of Nueva
Barcelona, Cumana, and Paria; though these coasts are the
continuation of the shore of La Guayra, and were formerly known to
have been often agitated by subterranean commotions. Admitting that
the destruction of the four towns of Caracas, La Guayra, San
Felipe, and Merida, may be attributed to a volcanic focus situated
under or near the island of St. Vincent, we may conceive that the
motion might have been propagated from north-east to south-west in
a line passing through the islands of Los Hermanos, near
Blanquilla, without touching the coasts of Araya, Cumana, and Nueva
Barcelona. This propagation of the shock might even have taken
place without any commotion having been felt at the intermediate
points on the surface of the globe (the Hermanos Islands for
instance). This phenomenon is frequently remarked at Peru and
Mexico, in earthquakes which have followed during ages a fixed
direction. The inhabitants of the Andes say, speaking of an
intermediary tract of ground, not affected by the general
commotion, "that it forms a bridge" (que hace puente): as if they
mean to indicate by this expression that the undulations are
propagated at an immense depth under an inert rock.
At Caracas, fifteen or eighteen hours after the great catastrophe,
the earth was tranquil. The night, as has already been observed,
was fine and calm; and the commotions did not recommence till after
the 27th. They were then attended by a very loud and long continued
subterranean noise (bramido). The inhabitants of the destroyed city
wandered into the country; but the villages and farms having
suffered as much as the town, they could find no shelter till they
were beyond the mountains of los Teques, in the valleys of Aragua,
and in the llanos or savannahs. No less than fifteen oscillations
were felt in one day. On the 5th of April there was almost as
violent an earthquake as that which overthrew the capital. During
several hours the ground was in a state of perpetual undulation.
Large heaps of earth fell in the mountains; and enormous masses of
rock were detached from the Silla of Caracas. It was even asserted,
and this opinion prevails still in the country, that the two domes
of the Silla sunk fifty or sixty toises; but this statement is not
founded on any measurement. I am informed that, in like manner, in
the province of Quito, the people, at every period of great
commotions, imagine that the volcano of Tunguragua diminishes in
height. It has been affirmed, in many published accounts of the
destruction of Caracas, that the mountain of the Silla is an
extinguished volcano; that a great quantity of volcanic substances
are found on the road from La Guayra to Caracas; that the rocks do
not present any regular stratification; and that everything bears
the stamp of the action of fire. It has even been stated that
twelve years prior to the great catastrophe, M. Bonpland and myself
had, from our own observations, considered the Silla as a very
dangerous neighbour to the city of Caracas, because the mountain
contained a great quantity of sulphur, and the commotions must come
from the north-east. It is seldom that observers of nature have to
justify themselves for an accomplished prediction; but I think it
my duty to oppose ideas which are too easily adopted on the LOCAL
CAUSES of earthquakes.
In all places where the soil has been incessantly agitated for
whole months, as at Jamaica in 1693, Lisbon in 1755, Cumana in
1766, and Piedmont in 1808, a volcano is expected to open. People
forget that we must seek the focus or centre of action, far from
the surface of the earth; that, according to undeniable evidence,
the undulations are propagated almost at the same instant across
seas of immense depth, at the distance of a thousand leagues; and
that the greatest commotions take place not at the foot of active
volcanoes, but in chains of mountains composed of the most
heterogeneous rocks. In our geognostical observation of the country
round Caracas we found gneiss, and mica-slate containing beds of
primitive limestone. The strata are scarcely more fractured or
irregularly inclined than near Freyburg in Saxony, or wherever
mountains of primitive formation rise abruptly to great heights. I
found at Caracas neither basalt nor dorolite, nor even trachytes or
trap-porphyries; nor in general any trace of an extinguished
volcano, unless we choose to regard the diabases of primitive
grunstein, contained in gneiss, as masses of lava, which have
filled up fissures. These diabases are the same as those of
Bohemia, Saxony, and Franconia;* (* These grunsteins are found in
Bohemia, near Pilsen, in granite; in Saxony, in the mica-slates of
Scheenberg; in Franconia, between Steeben and Lauenstein, in
transition-slates.) and whatever opinion may be entertained
respecting the ancient causes of the oxidation of the globe at its
surface, all those primitive mountains, which contain a mixture of
hornblende and feldspar, either in veins or in balls with
concentric layers, will not, I presume, be called volcanic
formations.
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