Abstract
ABOUT the middle of November 1888, there was a notable seismic disturbance in several places of Northern Venezuela. On the 13th, at 4h. 30m. a.m., a rather heavy concussion was felt at Caracas, and eastward as far as Rio Chico, where it caused some damage. On the 17th, two shocks were noticed at Cumana, viz. at 5h. 8m. a.m. and 2h. p.m. It is reported that their force diminished towards the east, so that they were scarcely perceptible at Carúpano. On the same day two shocks (1h. 45m. and 5h. 15m. p.m.) damaged in a somewhat serious manner a large number of houses at Guanare (69° 20′ W. of Greenwich, 8° 45′ N. lat.); two more were felt at the same place on the 18th at 3h. p.m., and on the 19th at 1h. 10m. a.m. The ultimate sign of the paroxysm was observed at Caracas on the last-named day, a few minutes before five o'clock in the afternoon. The zone of disturbance extended from Carúpano to Escuque (63° to 70° W. of Greenwich), and embraced the whole mountainous part of Northern Venezuela. In some cases the wave-motion is said to have been plainly north-east to southwest; but the maximum of disturbance (first shock at Guanare) showed decidedly a direction from north to south, as results from the numerous cracks in damaged walls and the way in which free-standing objects were thrown off their bases. The clock at the telegraph station, which hangs on a wall running east to west, was likewise instantly stopped. Dr. Lisandro Alvarado, a physician who resided at Guanare, who communicated these facts to me, informs me at the same time that the cracks emerge in an angle of from 75° to 80°. It is therefore very likely that the centre of the shock was not far from Guanare towards the north, where the crystalline schists of the Cordillera break through the overlying clay-slates and Cretaceous rocks, which form the northern margin of the great plains or llanos of Venezuela. Guanare lies on the very edge of these plains (185 metres above the sea), where the Cretaceous formation rather abruptly is met by the extensive deposit of conglomerate which covers the plains. Any disturbance in the raised strata forming the southern slope of the Cordillera will thus manifest itself with particular intensity in the vicinity of this border-line. The whole disturbance belongs, of course, to the class of tectonic earthquakes, as, indeed, do all those which happen now and then in this country.
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ERNST, A. Seismic Disturbance at Venezuela. Nature 39, 341 (1889). https://doi.org/10.1038/039341b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/039341b0
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