Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About The Sunday Oregonian. (Portland, Ore.) 1881-current | View Entire Issue (July 7, 1912)
Recent Alaska . Upheaval More. Seveife;Than Terrible San Francisco Quake o 1906 Shake ups of June in Alaska, Mexico,' Chile, Japan and Philippines, Earthquake Scientists Tell of Their Work Quakes Since 1688. H I AVE you ever been, n tba Tielnfty of an earthquaka? If yon hare. yon win never want to go through another experience of the kind. If yon have not it will cause shiver to glide op and down your spine just to read the experience of one who has passed through several of these terrifying earth phenomena. Many earthquakes occurred while the writer was In the Philippines, especial ly on the Island of Mindanao. His first experience left him dased and trem bling with the feeling, that the world was coming to an end. It was in 1904 ' when this island was shaken from end to end by one of the greatest earth quakes that ever occurred in that sec tion of the globe. The ground seemed to rise up and strike you In the face. If you tried to stand up yod fell down. Native shacks tumbled in all directions. - caribous crawling along the road were thrown down, and altogether it seemed as if the world had gone topsy turvy. But the peculiar part of the whole experience was the dreadful appreben slve feeling that seemed to smite one upon the flrst tremor of the earth. Tou have the same feeling, only probably . Intensified a thousandfold, as a person In the last stages of nervous prostra tion. It Is a feeling as if something frightful were going to happen, and you are absolutely helpless In the face of the supernatural. And this sensation grows more intense the longer the shock continues. It has often happened that people have dropped dead from heart disease due to the terrific shook upo'n the nervous system. Quakes In Hnr PI; Within the last month reports have been received of earthquakes and vol canic eruptions in widely separated parts of the world . Only last week came the news of the great volcanic eruption and earthquake in Alaska. About the same time reports were re ceived of a great earthquake at Jalisco and Collma. in Mexico, which caused much loss of life and destruction, of property. Shortly after this came the news of a volcanic outbreak and earth quake in the Philippine Islands, In that section known as Moroland, around Mindanao and neighboring Islands. This was followed within a few days by an earthquake in Japan, and about the same time several long-extinct vol canoes in India became active. After this dispatches reported earthquakes la Chile. All of these quakes were ac companied by violent volcanic erup- - tions In ' or near the vicinity of the shocks. Scientists have been asked to give a reason for the many volcanic eruptions - and earthquakes within such a short period of time but to all the questions the answer Is the same: There is no known reason to the scientlflo world." Several times in the past it Is claimed, phenomena of this kind have occurred in various parts of the world, but It is rare. - . . The question has become a live issue with the scientists, and they are today Investigating the problem all over the world. In their seal to wrest the secret from mother earth, men have descend ed into the depths of - volcanoes and ' walked about upon, the bed of the - crater within a few feet of the fiery boiling mass. Some! have even -taken moving-picture operators to photograph the phenomena to prove to the unbe lieving world that they have actually performed this unheard-of feat. They wanted absolute proof, and thought the best way to get It was to have a pic ture taken whUe within the walls of the crater. Other -scientists, within the month, have permitted themselves to be low ered, into the mouth of an aotive vol cano by means of a steel cable so that they mlgfct take notes of the phenom ena at close; range. These are only a few of the .daring feats performed by scientists recently. Every one remembers the terrible , Ban Francisco earthquake of 1908, with Its less of hundreds of human lives and the great destruction of property run ning into millions of dollars. Men who have made the earthquake a life study say that' the recent quake in Alaska was a more terrlflo shock, or rather s -rles of shocks, than those which caused the ruin of San Francisco. They de clare that if a quake of such a severe nature were to ecour'ln San Francisco mi I rte J y- r fir 1 or any other densely populated section, the ruin and loss of human life would be ten times greater than it was in California. The earthquake in Alaska in June, 191S, will stand, out promi nently as one of the most severe ever recorded in North America. 1 The Reeeat 4uk ) Alaska. The towns of St. Paul and - Wood Island, in Kadlak, Alaska, were buried beneath two feet of lava ashes, sand and pumice stone, and other villages suffered in like manner. Spouting hot ashes, flames and recks, shaking the earth with explosions, terrifying the natives with noises, lightning and smoke-filled skies; a livid glare by night extended many miles into, the heavens and high mountains hundreds of miles apart burst into flames and created a reign of terror in Southwest ern Alaska. Cordova was awakened by a mighty rumbling and cannonading of the mountains Lllama and Redoubt, more than S0O miles away. An area within a radius of 700 miles of the volcanoes was devastated. Ashes three and four feet deep fell about Kat mai, and extended to Sitka, more than TOO miles distant from the volcanoes. Mount St Augustine was also in-active eruption at the same time, and all the splendid farm and grazing lands around Kadlak were buried in an ash deposit two feet deep. ' The villages whose inhabitants, mostly natives, are believed to have perished were, Cold Bay, Katmai, Kanatuck, Douglas. Sav enoosky and Kemgamute. All the crops on the island were destroyed and millions of fish were killed by the sand and ashes that fell in the water. The water supply was polluted by decaying fish, while the springs wars buried un der the ashes. Ralph 8. Tarr and Lawrence Martin are two of Uncle Sam's earthquake spe cialists in the Geological Survey at Washington. These scientists for many years made a study of the phenomena of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions with special reference to the last great Alaska earthquake of September, 1S99. The result of their investigation has Just been published by the survey and 5 s-r-i !K3 8 S3 m mipi 7 i .1 f1 It is full of interesting Information, re garding volcanoes in Alaska. In speak, lng of the series of severe earthquakes of 1899 near Takutat Bay it is claimed that the cause of these shocks was the growth of the St. Ellas range, one of the youngest and loftiest mountain ranges in the world. Desezlptlom by Alaska Prospectors. There were a number of prospectors in the mountains at the time of the last earthquake, v and the story as told by them is full of dramatic interest. "We were sitting in our tent at the time," said one of them, "and in our efforts to get outside one of the men was piled up in a corner after being thrown headlong over the camp stove, while Captain Smith and I succeeded In getting hold of the tent pole, and as long as the shake-up lasted we held on to keep from being thrown to the ground. This shock must have lasted fully three minutes, the ground cutting up some of the queerest capers imag inable. In addition to the circular mo tion of the preceding heavy shock it was waving up and down like the swells of the sea, only with consider able more energy." . . Another prospector, camping a short distance farther in the mountains, said: "The moraine on which we were camped swerved and undulated so that a man could not stand. We ran from our tents,, leaving everything behind. The Hubbard glacier and mountain, 10 miles across its faoe, ran out Into the bay for two miles. "About SO yards back of the beach and 100 yards above us was a lake about twe acres In area and about 30 feet deep. This . lake broke from its bed' and rushed down on our camp, while ' we ran along the shore to esoape its fury. Everything went down before it. All was buried by the thousands of tons of rocks that came down afterward. This deluge was almost immediately followed by one from the sea, A wall of water 20 feet ' high came in and carried everything back again Into the hills. We heard a terrible roar in the direction of the bay ,and on looking that way saw a tidal wave to feet high - THE SUNDAY OREGONIAN. PORTLAND, JULY 1912. O) 589 mm -TS'l.' - W0 coming toward us, preceded by great geysers shooting into the air , more than 40 feet. . Crashing; Glaciers Terrorise. "While these great wavos were rush ing upon the shore, the ground was swaying and breaking in long jagged cracks that seemed to go to the bottom of the earth. Confronted both front and rear by waves and floods, with the ground trembling under our feet and the thunder of crashing glaciers in our ears, it is small wonder that we ran around in a frenzy, not knowing which way to go. fearing every second the ground would open up and swallow us or -the vast icebergs would fall down and crush us. Another party of five men camped a short distance from us ran back and forth while the earth was rocking and swaying like a cradle. A stream which separated this party from us was temDorarlly divided by the earth auake. which permitted them to cross over to our camp, but a little later this same stream was.' once more a raging torrent. "Imagine, if you can, one's feelings under such conditions; then add to that the continual reports of the Ice break ing off the glacier, the roar of the great landslides down the sides of the mountains every little while, the noise of swollen mountain streams tum bling down among loosened Icebergs, continuous rain, with an occasional earthquake, and the uncertainty of what was to come next, and you can then form some idea of the last great earthquake in Alaska." A better idea of the terrific char acter of this earthquake may be con veyed by saying that the uplift the aotual lifting up of thousands of square miles of the earth extended from 10 to 47 feet. What would happen if any such uplift as this occurred in even a small city? Houses formerly on a' level with each other would be 47 feet higher than the others after the quake, while the great majority, of course, would be total wrecks. - Otto Klots, of the Canadian Commis sion, and Fremont Morse, of the Ameri can Commission, who mapped the tidal glaciers in Alaska, said that the Mulr Glacier had retreated more than eight and a half miles in less than 13 years. This retreat of the glaciers is ascribed to earthquakes. Morse contrasts the present and past condition of the Mulr ' ,J t ev : U , i l j - i . i . r . ... : . -'.-." -, T , was mm Mini. leasts, ' glacier In this way: "Formerly the Mulr presented a perpendicular front at least 200 feet high, from which huge icebergs were loosened at frequent in tervals. The sight and sound of these vast masses falling from the cliff or suddenly appearing from the submarine ice foot was something which once wit nessed was not soon to be forgotten. It was grand and impressive beyond description. The Alaska Osaka of 18M. Almost nothing was known up to 1905 of the remarkable physical changes effected by the earthquake of Septem ber, 1899. The Takutat natives knew there had been changes in the islands of Disenchantment Bay, where they hunt ed seal each year, but they knew nothing more. The white prospectors who were in this region- during the earthquake never returned to see what changes took place. There was but one newspaper account of the earthquake, and the scientists say they were totally unprepared for the remarkable phe nomena found upon their visit there during the Summer of 190S. C E. HilL a resident of Takutat at the time of the last great earthquake. gives a thrilling description of it. "The shake of September 10 did all the dam age." said Mr. Hill. "We were in our tent and could not get up and stand on our feet at nrst. rne mission rocked until the church bell rang, and if anything was needed to complete the i terror of the , natives it was the ringing of the bell. Just as the earth quake ceased,--we saw a wonderful thing happen on the bay. ' There the water began roaring in great tidal waves. There were three of them fol lowing each other at Intervals of five minutes, and we stood and watched the bay rise 15 feet from low tide to a foot above tne nignest iiae point. The bay Itself was full of small pools whirling trees, lumber and drift wood around and around so fast the eye could hardly follow them. They circled like a wheel. The water was thrown into a mass of foam. . The whlrlDOol caught the chute of a new sawmill below us and carried It away in a twinkling. Deaths Frosa Earthquake. t "Just across from Takutat is the Island of Kanak. Before the eartn- n ii k an old Indian graveyara, aDoui six feet above bleb. tide, was locate COINCIDENCE OF 1 -. !tiClv;? I .J .- W4 r 5W A' J-'i'1?"" "we t J!7 . . JO on this island. It was out on a point. and suddenly we noticed the point. graveyard and all disappear, sink out of sight. There was in the graveyard a very high, pole, with a cross on top, and we soon discovered this cross way out. with four or five feet of it stick ing out of the water and still upright The next day we took a boat and rowed right over the place where the grave yard had formerly been, ana lookea down into the water. We could see the taps of trees. In several places we made soundings, but could find no bottom. A little farther along the shore we found marks of a number of gigantic water spouts. They had bored great holes in the ground, and had carried the sand and earth inland and scattered it a foot deep over acres of ground. From every Indication the force of water spouts and waves must have been irresistible, and Takutat must surely have been washed away had the tidal wave Bwept the bay at high Instead of low tide. The earth quake was a 'magnificent sight, but hardly one a man would hunt up lor the sake of feeling it." It will be seen that the Takutat Bay earthquakes rank among the great earthquakes of the world. But it is in decided contrast with other earth quakes which occur Jn places of rather dense population. In Japan 7279 people were killed, 17,893 injured ana more than 200,000 buildings destroyed In the shocks of 1891. In the Charleston earthquake 27 persons lost their lives and 56 others perished by cold and ex posure. Many houses were destroyed, and many more aamageo. During the first of the great earthquakes of India (Assam, 1897) praetically all the build ings In 145,000 square miles were laid in ruins. In the second. (Kangxa. 1905) 18,815 lives were lost, and the destruc tion of property was enormous, 112,477 buildings being destroyed. In California, in 1906, 200,000 people were made homeless, but only 709 lives were lost directly by the earthquake. There was, however, great destruction of buildings, largely due to fire, their value being more than $300,000,000. In the Riviera earthquake of 1887, 640 people were killed and more than 570 Injured. More than 60,000 people were killed in six minutes In the historic Lisbon earthquake of 1755, practically the whole city being thrown down. About 20,000 lives were lost in the, Prolific DISASTERS. " if" iiliMlsiTfcTeTa I I L (' j rv ft 'SiBBBBM great Calabrlan earthquake of 165S, 43,000 in 1693, between 82,000 and 60,000 In 1783. 800 in 1905, while the loss of life In 1908 was more than 100,000. Birth of Volcanic Islands. In contrast with all this, thure uti no recorded loss of life as a result of the former Takutat Bay earthquakes: and the only property damage known, aside from the loss of a rowboat and some tents, provisions and clothing by the prospectors of Disenchantment Bay, was the shifting of the roof of an uninhabited log cabin in outer Takutat Bay and the cracking of a few chim neys and slight damage to a wharf in Skagway. . Some of the great earthquakes or South America and New Zealand, like wise in thinly populated districts, have -' doubtless been much like the Alaskan shocks in Inflicting but slight damage to the human race. In Alaska, and especially on the Aleu tian Islands, there are many active and recently extinct volcanoes. In fact, there are so many along the coast that record would lead to con fusion. All the active volcanoes of Alaska are on its southern border ana witn few exceptions are situated close to the sea on the Alaskan peninsula and the Aleutian Islands. Volcanic islands that rise overnight and disappear the next night are. num bered among the unusual and most puz zling freaks of nature. But among the Alaskan Islands this Is quite a common occurrence. A small snot in Bering Sea about 80 miles north of the Island at TTmnak and 40 miles west Of tne northern corner of Unalaska has been the scene in recent years of more vio lent volcanic activity and has under gone greater changes than any other part of Northern Aiasna. in ima spot early in May, 1786, accompanied by thunder, earthquake and steam, a vol canic island was suddenly thrown up from the depths of the sea. No longer ago than the Summer of 1888 the wa ters were once more convulsed and shrouded In steam and fog, and a sec ond volcano was born. These are among the islands known as the Aleu tian group. The natives of that sec tion claim one island may be thrown up overnight, while another disappears and say this has continued lor many years. A resident oi umnaic nas given a vivid description of how these islands are born. He says: "One night, a few miles away, I saw a column of smoke, beneath which something black ap peared to be rising. During the night fire appeared In its place and at times became so bright that every object could be clearly distinguished for miles around. Then an earthquake shook our island with terrific roaring from the mountains at the south. The rising island tossed stones a distance of 30 miles. At sunrise the earthquake ceased, the flames diminished, and the newly-risen Island was seen, shaped like a black pointed cap. A montb later it had risen considerably higher. Meanwhile fire was thrown up con tinuously. 'While the flames gradually died out, the smoke and steam con tinued for four years and eight years later seal hunters found the water warm' and the ground so hot that no' one could walk upon It. That is how the island was born." (Copyright, 1912, by William I Alt dorfer.) ' .