The Landslip at Zug

Abstract

AN account of this catastrophe, written by Prof. Bonney, who visited the scene of ruin, has already appeared in the pages of NATURE (vol. xxxvi. p. 389). The present volume, compiled from official documents, gives a fuller history and more minute details of the results of the slip than were at that time accessible. It mainly consists of an elaborate report, written by Dr. A. Heim, the well-known Professor of Geology at Zürich, “Ober-ingenieur” R. Moser, and Dr. A. Burkli-Ziegler, to which are appended brief accounts of the incidents of the catastrophe, and of that which occurred in 1435, and lastly, a note on the disposal of the fund raised for the benefit of the sufferers. Plans and sections (extracted from the series which was attached to the above report) accompany the book, and indicate very clearly not only the amount of the mischief done, but also its cause, which, as already stated in these pages, is the existence of a deep deposit of silt beneath the superficial gravelly soil. The latter is but a very few feet thick, and suffices for the foundation of the less important buildings; the former constitutes the shelving bed of the lake to a depth of more than 100 feet. Borings made at various stations on the land, not far from the lake margin, have shown that this material remains incoherent to nearly the above depth, after which it becomes stronger. Hence there is always a danger of the underlying silt being squeezed outwards into and upon the bed of the lake, and the plans and sections furnished with the present volume show precisely how the accident occurred. There appear to have been some premonitory indications of the coming mishap, in addition to the subsidence in the new pier wall, which had already excited alarm. The inhabitants of certain houses, which afterwards fell, had observed sundry small displacements, which were especially shown by the jamming of doors and windows; cracking noises also had once or twice been heard. But the actual catastrophe was very sudden. About 3.20 p.m. the end of the quay wall, which had been completed up to a sort of little bastion, began to crack and sink. A quarter of an hour later came the first great slip, which caused the loss of seven lives. Except for some minor slips, there was then a pause for rather more than three hours, and then at 6.50 p.m. the second and greater slip occurred. A graphic account is given of the terror caused by this second catastrophe, which caused the loss of four more lives. A third, but comparatively unimportant, slip occurred at 10.15 p.m.

Die Catastrophe von Zug, 5 Juli, 1887.

(Zürich: Hofer und Burger, 1888.)