A Study of Recent Earthquakes

The following is from A Study of Recent Earthquakes by Charles Davison, Sc.D., F.G.S. (published 1905):

Preface

The present volume differs from a text-book of seismology in giving brief, though detailed, accounts of individual earthquakes rather than a discussion of the phenomena and distribution of earthquakes in general. At the close of his Les Tremblements de Terre, Professor Fouqué has devoted a few chapters to some of the principal earthquakes between 1854 and 1887; and there are also the well-known chapters in Lyell's Principles of Geology dealing with earthquakes of a still earlier date. With these exceptions, there is no other work covering the same ground; and he who wishes to study any particular earthquake can only do so by reading long reports or series of papers written perhaps in several different languages. The object of this volume is to save him this trouble, and to present to him the facts that seem most worthy of his attention.

The chapter on the Japanese earthquake is reprinted, with a few slight additions, from a paper published in the Geographical Journal, and I am indebted to the editor, not only for the necessary permission, but also for his courtesy in furnishing me with clichés of the blocks which illustrated the original paper. The editor of Knowledge has also allowed me to use a paper which appeared four years ago as the foundation of the ninth chapter in this book.

Charles Davison,
Birmingham,
January, 1905

• Chapter I - Introduction
• Chapter VIII - The Inverness Earthquake of September 18th, 1901

The Inverness Earthquake of September 18th, 1901