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Bengal Earthquake of 14 July1885
Bengal Earthquake of 14 July1885
1885, by H.B. Medlicot (1885) Records of the Geological Survey of India Vol.
XVIII, Part 3 p. 156-158
Observations are being made by officers of the Geological Survey where the shock
was most severely felt. Mr. C.S. Middlemiss is taking notes at Serajganj, Sherpur
(in the Bogra district), Maimansing, and Dhaka (Dacca); and Mr. P.N. Bose is
visiting Nattore, whence some peculiar effects have been reported. The time of the
occurrence was rigorously fixed for Calcutta by the stopping of the three regulator
clocks at the Meteorological Observatory, from which the time signals to the port
are made, as checked by daily astronomical observations; the hour was 6h24m12s,
on the forenoon of the 14th. The clock stands due north-south, facing east. As to the
direction at Calcutta, the most reliable observation I have heard of was that by Mr.
E.C. Cotes, of the recently filled cistern of a gas- holder on the premises of the
Indian Museum; the water was seen to spill to a little east of north. This is, too, the
direction suggested by the general report of damage done, which is very markedly
concentrated in the upper deltaic area traversed by the Brahmaputra. In parts of this
area slight shocks and tremors have continued since the main shock until now. No
notice of the shock has been reported from Cachar or upper Assam. Cracks in the
walls of houses are numerous enough, but it is very difficult to make sure that they
are not old ones that had been plastered over. The most distinct case of overthrow
that has come to notice was that of a heavy plaster cast leaning against the north
wall in a recess some 12 feet above the floor in the palaeontological gallery of the
museum, but it must have been in a dangerous state of unstable equilibrium.
The area indicated is, so far as I know, a hitherto unsuspected position for a
seismic focus, at least from recorded earthquake observations; but it is noteworthy
that within that area, north of Dhaka and west of Maimansing, lies the ground
known as the Madhopur jungle, which was described by Mr. James Fergusson in
his admirable paper on the delta of the Ganges (Quar.Jour.Geol.Soc.London, XIX,
p.329, 1863) as due to an upheaval, “which there is every reason to suppose took
place in very recent times.” It is described as presenting a more or less scarped face
of deltaic deposits along its western side, raised about 100 feet above the actual
alluvial area, and sloping eastwards under the old bed of the Brahmaputra, and
losing itself in the Sylhet jheels (swamps). This form is certainly very suggestive
of an actual upheaval along the western edge, and this line, running past the end of
the Garo hills on towards Sikkim (where the recent earthquake was very sensibly
felt), would approximately suit for the axis of the seismic area as now indicated.
There is another feature described by Mr. Fergusson that must be taken into
consideration in the present discussion, namely, the change that occurred early in
this century in the course of the Brahmaputra. When Major Rennell surveyed these
rivers in 1785, the whole Brahmaputra, which is perhaps a greater silt carrier than
the Ganges, flowed by Maimansing, east of Madhopur jungle, and did much work
in filling up the depressed area of the Sylhet jheels. It was then driven back from
this ground by the comparatively insignificant eastern streams, as is so well
explained by Mr. Fergusson, and fell over into the area west of the elevated tract,
where it now flows some 60 miles to the west of its former course, in the very
ground where the recent earthquake has done such mischief. It is not impossible
that the accumulation of 70 years’ deposits from the great river may have had some
influence in producing the catastrophe.
EXCERPT from Report on the Bengal Earthquake of July 14th, 1885, by C.S.
Middlemiss (1885) Records of the Geological Survey of India Vol. XVIII, Part
4 p. 200-221
Taking its rise in Bengal, this earthquake of the 14th July was felt with violence
throughout the province. It extended westwards into Chota Nagpur and Behar,
northwards into Sikkim and Bhutan, and eastwards into Assam, Manipur and
Burmah. The area over which it was sensibly felt may be roughly laid down as
230,400 square miles. An irregular ellipse drawn through Daltongunge (in
Palamow), Durbhanga (in Behar), Darjelling, Sibsagar, Manipur and Chittagong
will give the external boundary of that area. Within this, again, another irregular
figure may be drawn through Calcutta, Sitarampur, Monghir, Purnea, Siligori, the
Garo hills, Chattack and Barisal, which will enclose an area over which the shock
was felt with such considerable violence as to shake loose objects, rattle windows,
and produce small cracks in double- storied houses. Finally, we have another
figure within this bounded by Rampur, Bogra, Sherpur (Maimensing district),
Maimensing, Dacca and Pabna, where destruction to buildings is greatest and loss
of life occurred.
On arriving Serajgang, I found it to be one of the towns, which have suffered very
severely from the earthquake.
Earth fissures: Earth fissures opened at Sirajganj, Subornkholi, and Jamalpur, and
some few other places. They had taken place either by the banks of a river, or
elevated road way or the sloping sides of a tank. In one case at Subornkholi, near
Mr. Webster’s jute mills there were some irregular cracks, opened apparently on
the flat, though not many yards from some water. They were fringed all round the
margins by fine sand indicating that water oozed up through these cracks carrying
the sand and sometimes even spurted up into the air some few feet. Pieces of
lignite along with sand and water were thrown up through fissures at Sherpur
(Maimensing district).
Wells: In three cases wells were curiously affected. At Serajganj a well pipe, 13ft
7inches long and 1.5 inches in bore, was filled throughout with sand tightly
jammed into it. At Subornkholi a well with casing (1.5ft diameter) titled towards
NW; loking down through the brick mouth of the well, it was seen to be entirely on
one side instead of in the center. I also heard of another well in the neighbourhood
out of which a brass vessel had been hurled some distance.
Tank, Serajganj: The water of a tank close by the jute company’s works,
Serajganj, was affected, according to an account of the manager. The ling axis of
the tank lay N20E, and the water seemed to run east and west from the sides,
gathering up in the center, and then to spread out again to the sides.
Brick stacks: Some brick stacks in a brickyard at Maimensing were partially
overthrown. They all stood 3feet 9inches in height; and the NNE corners were the
ones shot way. The outer most bricks fell at a distance 4feet 9 inches from the
outer edge of the stack, a distance obtained by taking the mean of eight different
measurements.
On epicenter:
From the mean of directions of the fallen chimneys at Serajganj, the direction of
the tomb at Jamalpur, and that drawn from the cracks at Maimensing, we have to
place the seismic vertical as emerging on an area 3.5 miles in diameter with its
center 37 miles S37E from Serajganj, or 90° 6’ 30” East Long, and 23° 59’ 20”
North Lat.
If we take some three towns on the map where the destruction to buildings is
markedly greater than elsewhere, and describe a circle through them, the center of
that circle will be the position of the seismic vertical. Now there is no doubt that
Sherpur, Bogra and Nattore are three such places, as reference to the telegrams and
letters published in the Englishman between 15th and 25th July will show. These
three places are all about equidistant from the assigned position of the seismic
vertical near Atia, and thus the position of this point is made doubly certain.
On Depth of Focus:
In considering those points on the earth’s surface where the greatest damage has
been done to buildings, which points, as before mentioned, can be included in a
circle with the seismic vertical for center, we are at once struck by the fact that it is
not at every point alike of this circle that great disturbance has occurred, but only
at certain of them forming an arc of about 90° having Maimensing at one extremity
and Nattore at the other. This arc of violence is indeed wonderfully contrasted with
the rest of the circle; for if we take into consideration a large station like Dacca,
which is not so far from the seismic vertical as Serajgang, we find the destruction
caused there in no way comparable to that at that place. At Pubna also no very
great damage has been done, whilst from Faridpur and Comillah there have been
absolutely no reports, nor telegrams in the newspapers.
The smaller depths of alluvial soil along the northern arc of the circle of greatest
destructibility would receive the full effects from the direct shock, whilst the
thicker pad of clay on the southern arc would, by being violently moved as to its
particles in its lower part, have in some measure dissipated the motion before it
arrived at the surface.
[The author concludes that shallow depth to basement (impedance contrast) along
the actual arc of violence, is the cause of the observed damage]
There seems to be no doubt that the forerunner of the destroying earthquake of 14th
July is to be found in the gentler, but still violent shock, of the 25th June, which
convulsed a great part of Bengal, and was felt in Calcutta and Darjiling; whilst it is
certain that the latter small shocks and tremors have proceed from about the same
center as that of the 14th. These later ones happened on the following dates; and,
though doing no damage, they kept the population in a constant state of expectant
alarm:
On the other hand, if we take their near coincidence in time as a sign of their
connection in reality, we must look for no local and superficial cause, ….. but we
must search for some deeper cause underlying the very roots of the mountains, and
sufficient, by throwing the whole of the northern parts of India into a state of
strain, to bring on earthquake phenomena in those parts of the earth’s surface less
able to stand the stress or more intersected by lines of weakness……….Nor would
it, perhaps, be too much to look back to the Ischian earthquake and the eruption of
Krakatoa in the summer of 1883, as perhaps the great forerunners of this
consecutive series of seismic and volcanic phenomena.