“From the Savannah Republican”

Date

2-14-1812

Newspaper

The Times

Page and Column

Page 2, Column 3-4

Newspaper Location

Charleston, South Carolina

Serial Number

403

Abstract

Long account from Savannah, Georgia Republican of the February 7, 1812 earthquake. Included are quotes on earthquake history in the United States from Ramsay’s history of South Carolina and Voney’s view on soil and climate of the United States of America.

Transcript

FROM THE SAVANNAH REPUBLICAN. We are indebted to two scientific gentlemen for the following Communications, on the subject of Earthquakes, and will be thankful to others for their opinion:-- COMMUNICATION Mr. EVANS-the repeated and severe Earthquakes, experienced by us lately, are so awfully depressing, so novel and interesting, as to render every information relative to the subject, worthy of being read. It may also afford some satisfaction to the readers of your paper, to perceive, by what follows, that many Earthquakes have been felt in North-America, previously to the present, without any of those fatal circumstances having resulted there from, as have occurred in other countries, subject to them-the bare recital of which fills the human mind with horror and consternation. Ramsay, in his History of South-Carolina, remarks-"As this State enjoys many of the comforts of tropical countries, it is, in like manner, subject to some of the violent convulsions of Nature, which agitate these peculiar regions. From the fatal consequences of Earthquakes, we are happily exempt. A momentary one, that did no damage, is recollected by some of our old citizens, as having taken place about 2 o'clock in the morning of April the 4th, 1799."--Vol. 2, p. 505. Volney, in his view of the soil and climate of the United States of America, observes-"Though North-America has only been known about two centuries, this period, so brief in the annals of Nature, has supplied us with numerous proofs that Earthquakes have been violent and frequent throughout this region, in former ages; and that they have occasioned those subversions, of which the maritime country affords continual and striking indications. If we revert to the year 1628, when the first English colonists arrived, and deduce events down to 1782, a course of 134 years, (says Mr. Williams) we shall find mention made of forty-five Earthquakes. His enquities have established the following general facts:-- "That these Earthquakes are denoted by a noise resembling that of a high wind, or that sound which is produced by a chimney on fire: that they throw down the chimney tops, and sometimes even houses themselves; that they have made doors and windows rattle, and leave wells, and even many rivers, dry; that they make the waters turbid, and give them a faetid smell of live of sulphur; that they throw up sand from rents in the earth, which has the same odour; that their tremors appear to flow from internal fire, which pushes the earth upwards, in a line generally running from north-west to south-east, in the course of the Merimack river, extending southward to the Potomac, and north to the St. Lawrence, particularly effecting the direction of Lake Ontario."--Vide chap. 4 p. 98. Z. COMMUNICATION. "EARTHQUAKE.-Within the last few weeks past, the slight recurrence of this phenomenon has been so frequent, that we have not thought it worthy of particular notice, but on the morning of the 7th instant at 4 o'clock most of the inhabitants were awakened by the violence of a shock, which continued from 45 to 60 seconds, and was so alarming, that many did not venture to return to their beds during the remainder of the morning. The motion of the earth was from north-west to south-east, as appeared by a pendulum which had been fixed for the purpose immediately after the shock of the 16th December. Its vibrations were eliptical in the direction above mentioned. The sky was overcast, and had been so from 2 P. M. the preceding day, during which time the wind gradually shifted, north-about, from the south-west to north-east; where it is presumed, the vane pointed during the shock, the atmosphere, was perfectly calm; but soon after, there was heard a rumbling noise, like distant thunder, succeeded by a great fall of rain; and at day light two extremely severe clans of thunder, quite unusual at this season of the vest. The wind had been very high and cold; on the 6th, but abated at sun-down; [unreadable] atmosphere became more [unreadable] in the [unreadable]-particularly so, immediately after the earthquake. During the whole of the 7th, it was cloudy, with almost incessant rain until dark; when there appeared to be a fog...At 33 minutes past 6 P. M. there was a second; and at 11 P. M., a third, more violent than the second, but not so much so was the first. Many persons imagined, that the earth was in continual motion, in different degrees, between the second and third shocks; and the writer of this is of opinion, that the motion of the earth did not cease for an hour after the last shock was distinctly felt; and this opinion is corroborated by the the continuance of the vibrations of the pendulum during the time mentioned. The sky was perfectly clear and the starts shone bright, at the recurrence of the last shock. All the motions of the earth seemed to be undulatory and in the direction of the first. COMMUNICATION. Mr. EVANS-As I supposed in my communication of last January, a third shock of two Earthquake was very sensibly felt here this morning, (Friday) at about half past three. Its course and duration as follows:--Duration, 15 minutes; shock, extremely severe-as I lay, I distinctly heard, the rafters of the house crack; the doors and windows in violent motion, and the house trembling and rocking to a very considerable degree. A person observed, that he saw the brick building undulate considerably. Towards day, a heavy pelt of thunder was heard, and a sharp flash of lightning observed. And if it be true, that, as Mr. Edwards in his letter to the editor of the Raleigh Star, observes, a volcano has occurred in the Allegany mountains, we are no longer at a loss for the cause. Volcanos, in this part of our continent, are a new phenomena; and the sensous themselves, appear of late to be inverted. We have had an uncommon year! and the moral as well as the political world, appear to be undergoing some extraordinary change! Let us unite in adoring HIM, "who causeth the earth to tremble, and the waves of the sea to be still." Z. NOTE--Catania,an ancient, rich, and celebrated town of Sicily, near Mount AEtna, was entirely destroyed by an Earthquake, and about 18,000 people buried in the ruins in the years 1690 and 1693. In the last, it sufferest most. It has since been rebuilt and repeopled. The distance of this town, from the mountains west of us, forbids any apprehension of a similar fate; but it ought to have the salutary tendency of [unreadable] our people to walk humbly in the fear of God, and to maintain, without violation, the empire of his laws.

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