Earthquake

Abstract

NATURE on October 25 contained notices of shocks of earthquake which were felt at a quarter to one o'clock on the night of October 19 (11h. 20m. Greenwich M.T.) at Cadiz and other places on the coast of Andalusia. I have information that about 17h. 45m. later these shocks, which were travelling from I east to west, had apparently reached Bermudas. In a letter just received from ex-Chief Justice Darrell, dated October 22, he remarks:—“A very unusual event occurred here on the 20th of this month, in a shock of an earthquake, which however was slight; no life was lost, nor serious damage done to buildings; but the shock, which lasted less than a minute, at about a quarter past one p.m. was universally and unmistakably felt throughout the colony. It is said to be only the third time that any earthquake has been experienced in Bermuda in the last forty years.” A quarter past one in Bermuda would be about four and a half minutes past five at Greenwich, requiring, if the shocks originated in the same wave, a rate of transmission of about 158 geographical miles an hour, or 2.6 miles per minute; less than half the rate at which the great shocks of 1755 and 176l crossed the Atlantic from Lisbon to Barbados, which is given by Mallet as 7.3 miles, or 6.3 geographical miles per minute.¹