The Late American Earthquake and its Limits

Abstract

IN your very flattering critique of my “Alphabetical Catalogue of European Earthquakes” the reviewer says:—“The tendency to alignment in volcanoes has often been noticed; Prof. O'Reilly indicates a similar peculiarity in earthquakes, adding that the lines along which they range approximate to great circles. This inference or suspicion can be verified only by detailed charting.” Judging from the facts published up to the present relative to recent earthquakes of America and Europe, I think some such verification has been furnished by them. At the Exhibition of Scientific Apparatus held at South Kensington in 1877, I exhibited a globe mounted so as to allow of great circles being easily traced through points on the surface. Several coast-line great circles were shown thereon, amongst them that of the southern boundary of the Tertiary formation in the United States. It was also marked on the sketch earthquake-map of Europe exhibited before the Section of Gealogy of the British Association at their Swansea meeting of 1882, and on other maps, such as the earthquake map of the British Islands; and yet no leading fact went to prove that any particular significance should be attached to this great circle. The earthquakes of August 27 and 28 in the United States have furnished, in my opinion, some proofs of this significance. The following are the places through which this great circle passes:— Victoria Fort, on coast of Gulf of Mexico; Cairo (III.); axis of Lake Erie; Lake Ontario; River St. Lawrence (parallel to); New Brunswick coast of River St. Lawrence; Labrador, south coast; York Point and Straits of Belle Isle; Ireland, Shannon mouth; Wales, south coast of; St. Bride's Bay; Mendip Hills; Southampton; Dieppe, north of; Chalons; Bâsle, north-east coast of Zurich Lake; Coire; Trent; Venice; Dalmatian coast; south-west coast of Isola Longa; Mount Olympus; Skyro Island; Syrian coast, head of Akaba Gulf; Arabia, Mount Seiban, Wady Maifa; Cape Guardafui; Pacific Ocean, Paumota Group; coast of Mexico, near Cape Corrientes; Zacatecas territory.