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Alexander von Humboldt: „An earthquake in 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_Heft1-26-neu> [abgerufen am 29.03.2024].

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Titel An earthquake in the Caraccas
Jahr 1837
Ort London
Nachweis
in: The Guide to Knowledge: An Interesting Literary Repository, and Popular Scientific Instructor 1:29 (22. Juli 1837), S. 415–416.
Sprache Englisch
Typografischer Befund Antiqua; Spaltensatz; Auszeichnung: Kursivierung.
Identifikation
Textnummer Druckausgabe: III.62
Dateiname: 1819-Baron_Humboldts_Personal_Heft1-26-neu
Statistiken
Seitenanzahl: 2
Spaltenanzahl: 4
Zeichenanzahl: 7462

Weitere Fassungen
Baron Humboldt’s Last Volume. Personal Narrative of Travels to the Equinoctial Regions of the New Continent. Vol. 4. London, 1819 (New York City, New York, 1819, Englisch)
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Humboldt’s Travels (London, 1819, Englisch)
Electrical eels (Cambridge, 1819, Englisch)
[Earthquake at Caraccas] (Cambridge, 1819, Englisch)
Account of the Earthquake which destroyed the Town of Caraccas on the 26th March 1812 (Edinburgh, 1819, Englisch)
Account of the earthquake that destroyed the town of Caraccas on the twenty-sixth march, 1812 (Liverpool, 1819, Englisch)
Sur les Gymnotes et autres poissons électriques (Paris, 1819, Französisch)
An Account of the Earthquake in South America, on the 26th March, 1812 (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1820, Englisch)
[Earthquake at Caraccas] (Hartford, Connecticut, 1820, Englisch)
Account of the Elecrical Eels, and of the Method of catching them in South America by means of Wild Horses (Edinburgh, 1820, Englisch)
Observations respecting the Gymnotes, and other Electric Fish (London, 1820, Englisch)
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Earthquake in the Caraccas (London, 1820, Englisch)
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Earthquake at the Caraccas (Shrewsbury, 1823, Englisch)
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Baron Humboldt’s observation on the gymnotus, or electrical eel (London, 1833, Englisch)
The gymnotus, or electric eel (London, 1834, Englisch)
Earthquake at Caraccas in 1812 (Hartford, Connecticut, 1835, Englisch)
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An Earthquake (Leipzig; Hamburg; Itzehoe, 1838, Englisch)
Das Erdbeben von Caraccas (Leipzig, 1843, Deutsch)
The Gymnotus, or Electrical Eel (Buffalo, New York, 1849, Englisch)
Anecdote of a Crocodile (Boston, Massachusetts; New York City, New York, 1853, Englisch)
Battle with electric eels (Goldsboro, North Carolina, 1853, Englisch)
Anecdotes of crocodiles (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1853, Englisch)
Das Erdbeben von Caracas (Leipzig, 1858, Deutsch)
|415| |Spaltenumbruch| |Spaltenumbruch|

AN EARTHQUAKE IN THE CARACCAS. as described by humboldt.


The shock felt at Caraccas, in the month of December, 1811,was the only one that preceded the horrible catastrophe of the26th of March, 1812. The inhabitants of Terra Firma wereignorant of the agitations of the volcano in the island of St.Vincent on one side, and on the other, of those that were feltin the basin of the Missisippi, where, on the 7th and 8th ofFebruary, 1812, the earth was, day and night, in perpetual os-cillation. A great drought prevailed at this period in the pro-vince of Venezuela. Not a single drop of rain had fallen atCaraccas, or in the country ninety leagues round, during thefive months which preceded the destruction of the capital. The26th of March was a remarkably hot day. The air was calm,and the sky unclouded. It was Holy Thursday, and a greatpart of the population was assembled in the churches. Nothingseemed to presage the calamities of the day. At seven minutesafter four in the afternoon the first shock was felt; it was suf-ficiently powerful to make the bells of the churches toll; itlasted five or six seconds, during which time the ground was ina continual undulating movement, and seemed to heave up likea boiling liquid. The danger was thought to be past, when atremendous subterraneous noise was heard, resembling therolling of thunder, but louder, and of longer continuance, thanthat heard within the tropics in time of storms. This noisepreceded a perpendicular motion of three or four seconds, fol-lowed by an undulatory movement somewhat longer. Theshocks were in opposite directions, from north to south, andfrom east to west. Nothing could resist the movement frombeneath upward, and undulations crossing each other. Thetown of Caraccas was entirely overthrown. Thousands of theinhabitants (between nine and ten thousand) were buried underthe ruins of the houses and the churches. The procession hadnot yet set out; but the crowd was so great in the churches,that nearly three or four thousand persons were crushed by thefall of their vaulted roofs. The explosion was stronger towardthe north, in that part of the town situate nearest the mountainsof Avila, and the Silla. The churches of la Trinidad and AltaGracia, which were more than 150 feet high, and the naves ofwhich were supported by pillars of twelve or fifteen feet dia-meter, left a mass of ruins scarcely exceeding five or six feet inelevation. The sinking of the ruins has been so considerable,that there now scarcely remain any vestiges of pillars or co-lumns. The barracks, called El Quartel de San Carlos, situatefarther north of the church of the Trinity, on the road from theCustom-house de la Pastora, almost entirely disappeared. Aregiment of troops of the line, that was assembled under arms, |416| |Spaltenumbruch|ready to join the procession, was, with the exception of a fewmen, buried under the ruins of this great edifice. Nine tenthsof the fine town of Caraccas was entirely destroyed. The wallsof the houses that were not thrown down, as those of the streetSan Juan, near the Capuchin hospital, were cracked in such amanner, that it was impossible to run the risk of inhabitingthem. The effects of the earthquake were somewhat less vio-lent in the western and southern parts of the city, between theprincipal square and the ravine of Caraguata. There the ca-thedral, supported by enormous buttresses, remains standing. Estimating at nine or ten thousand the number of the deadin the city of Caraccas, we do not include those unhappy per-sons who, dangerously wounded, perished several months after,for want of food and proper care. The night of Holy Thursdaypresented the most distressing scene of desolation and sorrow.That thick cloud of dust, which, rising above the ruins, dark-ened the 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 domes of theSilla, and the aspect of the sky formed a perfect contrast tothat of the earth, covered with the dead, and heaped with ruins.Mothers were seen bearing in their arms their children, whomthey hoped to recall to life. Desolate families wandered throughthe city, seeking a brother, a husband, a friend, of whose fatethey were ignorant, and whom they believed to be lost in thecrowd. The people pressed along the streets, which could nomore be recognised but by long lines of ruins. All the calamities experienced in the great catastrophes ofLisbon, Messina, Lima, and Riobamba were renewed on thefatal day of the 26th of March, 1812. “The wounded, buriedunder the ruins, implored by their cries the help of thepassers-by, and nearly two thousand were dug out. Never waspity displayed in a more affecting manner; never had it beenseen more ingeniously active, than in the efforts employed tosave the miserable victims, whose groans reached the ear. Im-plements for digging, and clearing away the ruins were entirelywanting; and the people were obliged to use their bare handsto disinter the living. The wounded, as well as the sick whohad escaped from the hospitals, were laid on the banks of thesmall river Guayra. They found no shelter but the foliage oftrees. Beds, linen to dress the wounds, instruments of surgery,medicines, and objects of the most urgent necessity, were buriedunder the ruins. Everything, even food, was wanting duringthe first days. Water became alike scarce in the interior ofthe city. The commotion had rent the pipes of the fountains;the falling in of the earth had choked up the springs that sup-plied them; and it became necessary, in order to have water,to go down to the river Guayra, which was considerablyswelled; and then vessels to convey the water were wanting. There remained a duty to be fulfilled toward the dead, en-joined at once by piety, and the dread of infection. It beingimpossible to inter so many thousand corpses, half-buriedunder the ruins, commissaries were appointed to burn thebodies; and, for this purpose, funeral piles were erected be-tween the heaps of ruins. This ceremony lasted several days.Amid so many public calamities, the people devoted themselvesto those religious duties, which they thought were the most fit-ted to appease the wrath of Heaven. Some, assembling in pro-cessions, sung funeral hymns; others, in a state of distraction,confessed themselves aloud in the streets. In this town wasnow repeated what had been remarked in the province of Quito,after the tremendous earthquake of 1797; a number of mar-riages were contracted between persons, who had neglected formany years to sanction their union by the sacerdotal benedic-tion. Children found parents, by whom they had never tillthen been acknowledged; restitutions were promised by per-sons, who had never been accused of fraud: and families, whohad long been enemies, were drawn together by the tie of com-mon calamity.” If this feeling seemed to calm the passions ofsome, and open the heart to pity, it had a contrary effect onothers, rendering them more rigid and inhuman. In great ca-lamities, vulgar minds preserve still less goodness than strength;misfortune acts in the same manner, as the pursuits of litera-ture and the study of nature; their happy influence is felt onlyby a few, giving more ardour to sentiment, more elevation tothe thoughts, and more benevolence to the disposition. |Spaltenumbruch|