Earthquakes and Mountain Ranges

Abstract

IN NATURE of the 27th ult., in a note on a recent meeting of the Seismological Society of Japan, it is mentioned that the observations of Prof. Milne “as far as they have at present gone, show in a remarkable manner how a large mountain range absorbs earthquake energy.” It may be worth while to mention, as an exception to this, that the Swiss earthquake at 1 p.m. on July 25, 1855, which apparently had its origin among the mountains on the south side of the Valais, between Visp and S. Nicholas, both of which places. were seriously damaged, travelled through the Bernese Oberland, across the great valley of Switzerland, and then through the Jura. I was at the time in a small inn, at a place called Belle Rive in the Munster Thal, on the north side of the Jura. The house was severely shaken, so that some plaster fell from the ceiling. This was about seventyfive miles from the place of origin, and the wave in that interval had passed through two mountain ranges. It is probable that this earthquake was caused by a disturbance of a quite different kind from the volcanic disturbances of Japan, and that may account for a difference in the result.