EARTHQUAKES AND VOLCANOES IN CENTRAL AMERICA AND MEXICO.
BY TRUMBULL WHITE.
=A Region Frequently Disturbed by Subterranean
Forces--Guatemala a Fated City--A Lake Eruption in
Honduras Described by a Great Painter--City of San
Jose Destroyed--Inhabitants Leave the Vicinity to
Wander as Beggars--Disturbances on the Route of the
Proposed Nicaraguan Canal--San Salvador is Shaken--Mexican
Cities Suffer.=
Central America is continually being disturbed by subterranean forces.
Around the deep bays of this vast and splendid region, upon the shores
laved by the waters of the Pacific, and also about the large inland
lakes, rise, like an army of giants, a number of lofty volcanoes.
Whilst most of them are wrapped in slumber which has lasted for
centuries, others occasionally roar and groan as if in order to keep
themselves awake, and to watch well over their sleeping companions.
The fire which consumes their entrails extends far beneath the soil,
and often causes it to tremble. Three times within thirty years the
town of Guatemala has been destroyed by earthquakes, and there is not
in all Guatemala, Honduras, or any other state of Central America a
single coast which has not been visited by one or more violent
subterranean shocks. When the earthquakes occur in remote regions, far
from the habitations of men, in the midst of virgin forests, or in the
vicinity of large lakes, they give rise to very singular phenomena.
In 1856, a painter, entrusted with an official mission in Honduras,
witnessed an event of this kind, and though he sought to conceal his
identity, he was generally believed to be Herr Heine, the well-known
painter and explorer of Central America. Upon the day in question he
was sailing across a large lagoon named Criba, some twenty miles
broad, the weather being calm, and the sun shining brilliantly. After
having secured his boat to the shore, he had landed at the entrance to
a beautiful little village commanding a view of the plain dotted with
houses and with stately trees. Upon the opposite shore extended the
forest, with the sea in the far distance. The chief inhabitant of the
village having invited Herr Heine and his companions to come in and
rest, the whole party were seated beneath the veranda of the house,
engaged in pleasant conversation. Suddenly, a loud noise was heard in
the forest. The birds flew off in terror; the cocoanut palms bent and
writhed as if in panic, and large branches of them snapped off; shrubs
were torn up from the ground and carried across the lake. All this was
the effect of a whirlwind traveling through space from south to north.
The whole affair lasted only a few seconds, and calm was
re-established in Nature as suddenly as it had been disturbed.
Conversation, of course, then turned upon the phenomenon just
witnessed, and the natives maintained that atmospheric disturbances of
this kind are the forerunners of severe earthquakes or violent
volcanic eruptions; some of them declaring that a disaster of this
character had doubtless just occurred somewhere. The host, an elderly
man much esteemed in the district for his knowledge, went on to
describe many such catastrophes which he himself had witnessed. He
spoke more particularly of the eruption of the volcano of Coseguina,
in Nicaragua, which had been preceded by a fierce whirlwind, which had
been so strong that it carried pieces of rock and ashes to a distance
of nearly a mile. The captain of a large sailing vessel had told him
that upon the following day, when more than 100 miles from the coast,
he had found the sea covered with pumice-stone, and had experienced
great difficulty in threading a way for his vessel through these
blocks of volcanic stone which were floating upon the surface like
icebergs.
Everyone, including the European, had his story to tell, and while the
party were still in conversation, a terrible noise like thunder was
heard, and the earth began to quake. At first the shocks were felt to
be rising upward, but after a few seconds they became transformed into
undulations traveling northward, just as the sudden whirlwind had
done. The soil undulated like the surface of a stormy sea, and the
trees were rocked to and fro so violently that the topmost branches of
the palms came in contact with the ground and snapped off. The
traveler and his friends, believing themselves to be out of danger,
were able to follow with ever-increasing interest the rapid phases of
the disturbance, when a strange and alarming phenomenon attracted
their notice.
"Our attention was called," relates Herr Heine, "to a terrible
commotion in the direction of the lagoon, but I cannot express what I
then saw, I did not know if I was awake or a prey to a nightmare;
whether I was in the world of reality or in the world of spirits."
The water of the lagoon disappeared as if it were engulfed in a sort
of a subterranean cavern, or rather, it turned over upon itself, so
that from the shore to the center of the lake the bed was quite empty.
But in a few moments the water reappeared, and mounting toward the
center of the enormous basin, it formed an immense column, which,
roaring and flecked with foam, reached so high that it intercepted the
sunlight. Suddenly, the column of water collapsed with a noise as of
thunder, and the foaming waves dashed toward the shore. Herr Heine and
his companions would have perished if they had not been standing upon
elevated ground, and, as it was, they could not restrain an
exclamation of horror as they saw this mass of water, like solid rock,
rolling along the plain, carrying trees, large stones, and whole
fields before it.
"I saw all that without at first thinking of our own fate," recites
Herr Heine, "and I think that the greatness of the peril which
threatened the whole country made me indifferent as to the fate of
myself and my companions. In any case, when I saw my familiar
companion, Carib, nearly carried off, I remained indifferent, and it
was only after two others of my followers, Manuel and Michel, had had
very narrow escapes, that I succeeded in shaking off my apathy, and
going to their assistance."
When the travelers, whose boat had disappeared, started for the town
of San Jose, whence they had come in the morning, they were able to
judge for themselves as to the extent of the disaster. All the country
which they had passed through had been laid waste. Large masses of
rock had been detached from the mountains, and obstructed the course
of streams which had overflown their banks or changed their course.
Whole villages had been destroyed, and in all directions arose the
lamentations of the unfortunate inhabitants. The region over which the
waters of the lagoon had been carried was no longer to be identified
as the same, covered as it was with debris of every kind, and with a
thick layer of sand and rock.
When they started in the morning, the travelers had left San Jose
prosperous and full of cheerful stir, but when they returned at night
they found it in ruins and almost deserted. The earthquake had
overthrown all the houses with the exception of about twenty, and
these were very badly damaged.
All the buildings in solid masonry, including the massive church, were
heaps of ruins; and most of the inhabitants had perished. The Indians
who were prowling in the outskirts of the town took advantage of the
catastrophe to carry off all they could from the houses which were
still standing and from the ruins of the others. The agility with
which these Indians move about among the ruins and escape the falling
walls is something wonderful, and they never hesitate to risk their
lives for a very trifle.
In Central America disasters of this kind invariably cause many of
the inhabitants to emigrate. Men, women, and children form themselves
into groups, and travel through the country. They set the drama in
which they have taken part to music, and they journey from one village
to another, singing the rude verses they have composed, and then
sending the hat around. After they have visited the whole of their own
country, they cross into the neighboring state, where they are also
assured of a profitable tour. Thus for more than a year Honduras and
Nicaragua were visited by bands of homeless victims, chanting in
monotone the eruption of Lake Criba and the terrible catastrophe of
San Jose.
The western half of Nicaragua, including the basin in which lie Lakes
Managua and Nicaragua, is a volcanic center, including some of the
largest of the twenty-five active cones and craters of Central
America. Stretching from northwest to southeast, the string of craters
beginning with Coseguina and Viejo reaches well into the lake basin.
At the northern end of Lake Managua stands Momotombo, while from the
lake itself rises Momotombito. On the northwestern shore of Lake
Nicaragua lies the volcano Mombocho, while between the two lakes is
the volcano Masaya. Near the center of Lake Nicaragua are the two
volcanoes of Madera and Omotepe.
Since 1835 there have been six eruptions in Nicaragua, one of them, in
1883, being an outbreak in the crater of Omotepe in Lake Nicaragua,
the route of the proposed Nicaraguan canal. The Coseguina eruption,
the uproar of which was heard more than 1,000 miles away, threw the
headland upon which it stands 787 feet out into the sea, and rained
ashes and pumice-stone over an area estimated at 1,200,000 square
miles.
Like all Spanish towns in America, San Salvador, capital of the
republic of that name, covers a large area in proportion to its
population. The houses are low, none of them having more than one
story, while the walls are very thick in order to be capable of
resisting earthquakes. Inside each house of the better class is a
courtyard, planted with trees, generally having a fountain in the
center. It was to these spacious courtyards that, in 1854, many of the
inhabitants of San Salvador owed their lives, as they found in them a
refuge from their falling houses. On the night of April 16, the city
was reduced to a heap of ruins, only a single public building and very
few private ones having been left standing. Nearly 5,000 of the
inhabitants were buried in the ruins. There was a premonitory shock
before the great one, and many took heed of its warning and escaped to
places of safety, otherwise the loss of life would have been even more
terrible.
Guatemala was visited with a series of almost daily tremors from the
middle of April to the middle of June, 1870. The most severe shock was
on the 12th of June and was sufficiently powerful to overthrow many
buildings.
The republic of San Salvador was again visited by a great earthquake
in October, 1878. Many towns, such as Incuapa, Guadeloupe, and
Santiago de Marie, were almost totally destroyed, and many lives were
lost. The shock causing the most damage had at first a kind of
oscillatory movement lasting over forty seconds and ending in a
general upheaval of the earth; the result being that solid walls,
arches, and strongly braced roofs, were broken and severed like
pipe-stems. In the vicinity of Incuapa a number of villages
disappeared entirely.
The mountainous region of Mexico is highly volcanic, and earthquakes
are of frequent occurrence. Very few of them, however, in the historic
period, have occasioned great loss of either life or property. One of
the most disastrous occurred in January, 1835, when the town of
Acapulco was totally destroyed. In April, ten years later, the City of
Mexico was much shaken. Considerable damage was done to buildings,
especially to churches and other edifices of large size, several of
which were reduced to ruins. The loss of life was limited to less than
twenty. Probably the most serious convulsion the country has
experienced was in 1858, when shocks were felt over almost all the
republic, causing many deaths, and destroying much property. Over 100
people lost their lives on May 11 and 12, 1870, when the city of
Oaxaca was visited by a succession of severe shocks, which tore down
many buildings. Since this time Mexico has been free from convulsions
of any great magnitude, although slight earth tremors are of frequent
occurrence in different parts of the country.
Mexican volcanoes, likewise, are famous for their size, though of late
years no great eruptions have occurred. There are many isolated peaks,
all of volcanic origin, of which Orizaba, with a height of 18,314
feet, and Popocatepetl, 17,300 feet, the most renowned, are both
active. The latter has one crater 5,000 feet in diameter. From the
summit the Pacific Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico are both visible.
This crater has not erupted for many years, but in former times it
threw its ashes a distance of sixty miles. One can descend into its
depths fully 1,000 feet, and view its sulphur walls, hung with
stalactites of ice, or see its columns of vapor spouting here and
there through crevices that extend down into the interior of the
earth. In the ancient Aztec and Toltec mythology of Mexico, this was
the Hell of Masaya.
Nowadays great sulphur mines on the peak bring profit to the owners,
and ice is quarried from the same vicinity to supply the neighboring
city of Puebla.