Here Again Earthquakes Are Frequent
And Very Severe.
In the Society archipelago, on the
other hand, where the lagoon-channels are almost choked up,
where much low
Alluvial land has accumulated, and where in
some cases long islets have been formed on the barrier-reefs
- facts all showing that the islands have not very lately
subsided - only feeble shocks are most rarely felt. In these
coral formations, where the land and water seem struggling
for mastery, it must be ever difficult to decide between the
effects of a change in the set of the tides and of a slight
subsidence: that many of these reefs and atolls are subject to
changes of some kind is certain; on some atolls the islets
appear to have increased greatly within a late period; on
others they have been partially or wholly washed away. The
inhabitants of parts of the Maldiva archipelago know the
date of the first formation of some islets; in other parts, the
corals are now flourishing on water-washed reefs, where
holes made for graves attest the former existence of inhabited
land. It is difficult to believe in frequent changes in the
tidal currents of an open ocean; whereas, we have in the
earthquakes recorded by the natives on some atolls, and in
the great fissures observed on other atolls, plain evidence of
changes and disturbances in progress in the subterranean
regions.
It is evident, on our theory, that coasts merely fringed by
reefs cannot have subsided to any perceptible amount; and
therefore they must, since the growth of their corals, either
have remained stationary or have been upheaved.
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