Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1957), Saturday 13 September 1902, page 14


NATURE'S UNREST.

RECENT VOLCANIC ACTIVITY.

Since the terrible volcanic eruptions in the West Indies early in May last, there have been few intervals between reports of earthquake or signs of volcanic activity in various parts of the world. Quickly following the incidents at Mar-tinique and St. Vincent in May came ac-counts of earthquakes in France and Spain and other parts of Europe and in Florida; a volcano in the Riviera, which had been quiescent for centuries, gave forth sul-phurous gases, and an old volcano on the Pacific coast of America became active. During June there were more earthquake shocks in France and Spain and in Corn-

wall, and a volcano in Russia was heard from. Next, volcanoes in Central America, hitherto supposed to be extinct or dormant, came into play, and there was a terrific earthquake at Kingston, in Jamaica. Cali-fornia was visited by shocks so severe that a town named Los Alamos suffered very severely. After a quiet spell of nearly a month Mont Pelee again broke out into violent eruption about three weeks ago, and a week or two later it was found that the Gulf of Mexico had been completely changed by the earth movements that had been going on, shallows existing where the water had formerly been half a mile deep. On the 2nd inst. further eruptions took place at Mont Pelee, followed by earthquake shocks at Venezuela and a renewal of ac-tivity by La Soufriere. Then yesterday's cable news conveyed an intimation of out-

breaks of volcanic energy from widely-separated parts of the world, the great vol-cano of Kilauea, in Hawaii, the volcano in the island of Stromboli, in the Mediter-

ranean, and two volcanoes in Alaska hav-ing all got into a state of activity.

"One great earthquake shock or one tremendous volcanic eruption shakes the whole crust of the earth," remarked Pro-fessor Gregory when chatting on the subject yesterday, "and volcanic action over other portions of the globe is sympathetically caused. The previous great volcanic erup-

tion in the West Indies was preceded by a great earthquake at Caracas, which shook the whole of the western part of the Ca-ribbean Sea. When I wrote an article in 'The Argus' some time ago dealing with the Martinique disaster, I was not aware of any great earthquake having happened just before that outbreak. There had been slight reference to one in Guatemala, but just after the article appeared I received a let-ter which showed that the disturbance in Guatemala had been more serious than was reported, the town of Quesaltenago hav-

ing been completely destroyed. That was only a month before the Martinique out-break in May. I have now little doubt that the subterranean movement felt as the Gua-

temalan earthquake was the cause of the eruption of Martinique."

Professor Gregory thinks that, upon the whole, the Martinique eruptions have fol-

lowed a fairly normal course for the West Indian series. They seem now, he says, to be dying down. They have started the movements in other parts of the world, and these in course of time may culminate in more important volcanic disturbances. There is, as a rule, no first-class eruption without some smaller movement preceeding it. "I do not think," he added, "that there is any data to indicate that the disturb-ances now reported are not simply faint echoes of the great West Indian outbreaks. But, again, they may be premonitory symp-toms of big volcanic explosions in the lo-calities in which they are occurring."

No significance need be attached to the report regarding Stromboli, Professor Gre-gory explained, as the volcano has always been known as the lighthouse of the Medi-

terranean, and is said to have had two eruptions every quarter of an hour for more than 2,000 years. The outbreak at Kilauea is very interesting, because it has always been stated that there is a certain sym-pathy between the Hawaiian group and the Italian series. Shortly after the Martinique eruption a small outbreak occurred in a crater in Italy long supposed to be extinct. In relation to the activity at Hawaii, it is interesting to note that Vesuvius was re-ported to be showing life last week.

Asked about the small local contribu-tion to the history of prevailing earth movements, contained in the reported rumblings at Mount Buckrabanyule, Profes-sor Gregory said that strangely enough, at about the same time that the noises were heard at Buckrabanyule he received an ac-count from Mount Buninyong of similiar subterranean sounds having been noticed then. The weak element in the latter case was the fact that mining was going on in the district, and the sounds of explosions in the mine might sometimes travel consider-able distances. There have been reports also, Professor Gregory observed, of rumb-ling in Central Australia, called by the natives the "desert sound." These noises are heard in many different pats of the world in regions where there is reason to think earth movements are going on. A slight slipping along the line of move-ment that formed Lake Torrens, and runs away to the south and west of Lake Eyre, is still going on, and is probably creating these noises. The earthquake in Guatemala was probably due to movements along the great line of fracture that runs along the western side of America, and it is not surprising, Professor Gregory says, to find volcanic ac-tivity starting at the northern end of the fracture in Alaska.