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Alexander von Humboldt: „Earthquake at the Caraccas“, in: ders., Sämtliche Schriften digital, herausgegeben von Oliver Lubrich und Thomas Nehrlich, Universität Bern 2021. URL: <https://humboldt.unibe.ch/text/1819-Baron_Humboldts_Personal_Heft1-18-neu> [abgerufen am 20.04.2024].
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| Titel | Earthquake at the Caraccas | ||||
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| Jahr | 1823 | ||||
| Ort | Shrewsbury | ||||
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Nachweis in: Charles Hulbert, Museum Americanum; or, Select Antiquities, Curiosities, Beauties, and Varieties, of Nature and Art, in America; Compiled from Eminent Authorities, Methodically Arranged, Interspersed with Original Hints, Observations, &c., Shrewsbury: C. Hulbert 1823, S. 265–269.
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| Sprache | Englisch | ||||
| Typografischer Befund | Antiqua; Auszeichnung: Kursivierung; Fußnoten mit Asterisken; Schmuck: Initialen. | ||||
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|265|
(Jamieson’s Universal Science.)
ON the subject of earthquakes, the field of observationis both varied and extensive; but the scientific des-cription of one is worth the detail of fifty, where themarvellous hath supplied knowledge, and fear has shrunkfrom the investigation of the causes that produce thesephenomena.
There are few events in the physical world which arecalculated to excite so deep and permanent an interestas the earthquake which destroyed the town of Caraccasin 1812, and by which more than 20,000 persons pe-rished, almost at the same instant, in the province ofVenezuela, in South America.
The 26th of March was a remarkably hot day. Theair was calm, and the sky unclouded. It was HolyThursday, and a great part of the population was as-sembled in the churches. Nothing seemed to presage thecalamities of the day. At seven minutes after four inthe afternoon the first shock was felt; it was sufficientlypowerful to make the bells of the churches toll; it lastedfive or six seconds, during which time the ground was ina continual undulating movement, and seemed to heaveup like a boiling liquid. The danger was thought to bepast, when a tremendous subterraneous noise was heard,resembling the rolling of thunder, but louder, and oflonger continuance than that heard within the tropics inin time of storms. This noise preceded a perpendicularmotion of three or four seconds, followed by an undula-tory movement somewhat longer. The shocks were inopposite directions, from north to south, and from eastto west. Nothing could resist the movement from be-neath upward, and undulations crossing each other.
|266|The town of Caraccas was entirely overthrown. Be-tween nine and ten thousand of the inhabitants wereburied under the ruins of the houses and churches. Theprocession had not yet set out; but the crowd was sogreat in the churches, that nearly three or four thou-sand persons were crushed by the fall of their vaultedroofs. The explosion was stronger towards the north,in that part of the town situated nearest the mountainof Avila, and the Silla. The churches of la Trinidadand Alta Gracia, which were more than 150 feet high,and the naves of which were supported by pillars oftwelve or fifteen feet diameter, left a mass of ruinsscarcely exceeding five or six feet in elevation. Thesinking of the ruins has been so considerable, that therenow scarcely remain any vestiges of pillars or columns.The barracks, called El Quartel de San Carlos, situatefarther north of the church of the Trinity, on the roadfrom the custom-house de la Pastora, almost entirelydisappeared. A regiment of troops of the line, that wasassembled under arms, ready to join the procession, was,with the exception of a few men, buried under the ruinsof this great edifice. Nine tenths of the fine town ofCaraccas were entirely destroyed. The walls of thehouses that were not thrown down, as those of the streetSan Juan, near the Capuchin Hospital, were cracked insuch a manner, that it was impossible to run the risk ofinhabiting them.
Estimating at nine or ten thousand the number of thedead in the city of Caraccas, we do not include thoseunhappy persons, who, dangerously wounded, perishedseveral months after, for want of food and proper atten-tion. The night of Holy Thursday presented the mostdistressing scene of desolation and sorrow. That thickcloud of dust, which, rising above the ruins, darkenedthe sky like a fog, had settled on the ground. No shockwas felt, and never was a night more calm or more serene.The moon, nearly full, illumined the rounded domesof the Silla, and the aspect of the sky formed a perfectcontrast to that of the earth, covered with the dead, andheaped with ruins. Mothers were seen bearing intheir arms their children, whom they hoped to recallto life. Desolate families wandered through the city,
|267|seeking a brother, a husband, a friend, of whose fatethey were ignorant, and whom they believed to belost in the crowd. The people pressed along the streets,which could no more be recognised but by long lines ofruins.
All the calamities experienced in the great catas-trophes of Lisbon, Messina, Lima, and Riobamba,were renewed on the fatal day of the 26th of March,1812. The wounded, buried under the ruins, implor-ed by their cries the help of the passers by, and near-ly 2000 were dug out. Implements for digging, andclearing away the ruins were entirely wanting; andthe people were obliged to use their bare hands to dis-inter the living. The wounded, as well as the sick whohad escaped from the hospitals, were laid on the banksof the small river Guayra. They found no shelter butthe foliage of the trees. Beds, linen to dress thewounds, instruments of surgery, medicines, and ob-jects of the most urgent necessity, were buried underthe ruins. Every thing, even food, was wanting duringthe first days. Water became alike scarce in the inte-rior of the city. The commotion had rent the pipes ofthe fountains; the falling of the earth had choked upthe springs that supplied them; and it became neces-sary, in order to have water, to go down to the riverGuayra, which was considerably swelled; and then ves-sels to convey the water were wanting.
There remained a duty to be fulfilled towards thedead, enjoined at once by piety and the dread of infec-tion. It being impossible to inter so many thousandcorpses, half buried under the ruins, commissarieswere appointed to burn the bodies: and for this pur-pose, funeral piles were erected between the heaps ofruins. This ceremony lasted several days. Amid somany public calamities, the people devoted themselvesto those religious duties which they thought were themost fitted to appease the wrath of heaven. Some, as-sembling in procession, sung funeral hymns: others,in a state of distraction, confessed themselves aloud inthe streets. In this town was now repeated what hadbeen remarked in the province of Quito, after the tre-mendous earthquake of 1797; a number of marriages
|268|were contracted between persons who had neglected formany years to sanction their union by the sacerdotalbenediction. Children found parents by whom they hadnever till then been acknowledged; restitutions werepromised by persons, who had never been accused offraud; and families, who had long been enemies, weredrawn together by the tie of common calamity. Ifthis feeling seemed to calm the passions of some, andopen the heart to pity, it had a contrary effect on others,rendering them more rigid and inhuman.
Shocks as violent as those which, in the space of oneminute*, overthrew the city of Caraccas, could not beconfined to a small portion of the continent. Theirfatal effects extended as far as the provinces of Vene-zuela, Verinas, and Maracaybo, along the coast; andstill more to the inland mountains. La Guayra, May-quetia, Antimano, Baruta, La Vega, San Felipe, andMerida, were almost entirely destroyed. The numberof the dead exceeded four or five thousand at La Guayraand the town of San Felipe, near the copper-mines ofAroa. It appears, that it was on a line running eastnorth-east, and west south-west, from La Guayra andand Carraccas to the lofty mountains of Niquitao andMerida, that the violence of the earthquake was princi-pally directed. It was felt in the kingdom of NewGranada from the branches of the high Sierra de SantaMartha as far as Santa Fe de Bogota and Honda, onthe banks of Magdelena, 180 leagues from Carraccas.It was every where more violent in the Cordilleras ofgneiss and mica-slate, or immediately at their foot,than in the plains: and this difference was particularlystriking in the savannahs of Varinas and Casanara. Inthe valleys of Aragua, situate between Carraccas andthe town of San Felipe, the commotions were veryweak: and La Victoria, Maracay, and Valentia, scarce-
* The duration of the earthquake, that is to say, thewhole of the movements of undulation and rising whichoccasioned the horrible catastrophe of the 26th of March,1812, was estimated by some at fifty seconds, by othersat one minute and twelve seconds.|269|ly suffered at all, notwithstanding their proximity tothe capital. At Valecillo, a few leagues from Valencia,the earth, opening, threw out such an immense quan-tity of water, that it formed a new torrent. Thesame phenomenon took place near Porto-Cabello. Onthe other hand, the lake Maracaybo diminished sensibly.At Coro no commotion was felt, though the town is si-tuated upon the coast, between other towns whichsuffered from the earthquake. Fifteen or eighteen hours after the great catastrophe, theground remained tranquil. The night, as we have alreadyobserved, was fine and calm; and the commotions didnot recommence till after the 27th. They then were at-tended with a very loud and long continued subterra-nean noise. The inhabitants of Caraccas wandered intothe country; but the villages and farms having sufferedas much as the town, they could find no shelter till theywere beyond the mountains of Los Teques, in the val-leys of Aragua, and in the Llanos or savannahs. Noless than fifteen oscillations were often felt in one day.On the fifth of April there were almost as violent anearthquake, as that which overthrew the capital. Dur-ing several hours, the ground was in a state of perpetualundulation. Large masses of earth fell in the moun-tains; and enormous rocks were detached from the Sillaof Caraccas. It was even asserted and believed that thetwo domes of the Silla sunk fifty or sixty toises; butthis assertion is founded on no measurement whatever. On the 7th day of June, 1692, the town of Port Royalin Jamaica, was in two minutes totally destroyed by anearthquake: Various instances of the destructive effectsof this terrible phenomenon might be adduced, but thepreceding have exceeded the limits assigned for this por-tion of our Museum.
EARTHQUAKE AT THE CARACCAS.
* The duration of the earthquake, that is to say, thewhole of the movements of undulation and rising whichoccasioned the horrible catastrophe of the 26th of March,1812, was estimated by some at fifty seconds, by othersat one minute and twelve seconds.|269|ly suffered at all, notwithstanding their proximity tothe capital. At Valecillo, a few leagues from Valencia,the earth, opening, threw out such an immense quan-tity of water, that it formed a new torrent. Thesame phenomenon took place near Porto-Cabello. Onthe other hand, the lake Maracaybo diminished sensibly.At Coro no commotion was felt, though the town is si-tuated upon the coast, between other towns whichsuffered from the earthquake. Fifteen or eighteen hours after the great catastrophe, theground remained tranquil. The night, as we have alreadyobserved, was fine and calm; and the commotions didnot recommence till after the 27th. They then were at-tended with a very loud and long continued subterra-nean noise. The inhabitants of Caraccas wandered intothe country; but the villages and farms having sufferedas much as the town, they could find no shelter till theywere beyond the mountains of Los Teques, in the val-leys of Aragua, and in the Llanos or savannahs. Noless than fifteen oscillations were often felt in one day.On the fifth of April there were almost as violent anearthquake, as that which overthrew the capital. Dur-ing several hours, the ground was in a state of perpetualundulation. Large masses of earth fell in the moun-tains; and enormous rocks were detached from the Sillaof Caraccas. It was even asserted and believed that thetwo domes of the Silla sunk fifty or sixty toises; butthis assertion is founded on no measurement whatever. On the 7th day of June, 1692, the town of Port Royalin Jamaica, was in two minutes totally destroyed by anearthquake: Various instances of the destructive effectsof this terrible phenomenon might be adduced, but thepreceding have exceeded the limits assigned for this por-tion of our Museum.