_Sea waves._—Although in the above-mentioned instances sea waves have
not been noticed, it is by no means uncommon to find that destructive
earthquakes have been accompanied by waves of an enormous size, which,
if the earthquake has originated beneath the sea, have, subsequently
to the shaking, rolled in upon the land, to create more devastation
than the actual earthquake. It may, however, be mentioned that a few
exceptional cases exist when it is said that the sea wave has preceded
the earthquake, as, for example, at Smyrna, on September 8, 1852.
Again, at the earthquake in St. Thomas, in 1868, it is said that the
water receded shortly _before_ the first shock. When it returned, after
the second shock, it was sufficient to throw the U.S. ship ‘Monagahela’
high and dry.[74]
Another American ship, the ‘Wateree,’ was also lost in 1868 by being
swept a quarter of a mile inland by the sea wave which inundated
Arequippa.
Much of the great destruction which occurred at the time of the great
Lisbon earthquake was due to a series of great sea waves, thirty to
sixty feet higher than the highest tide, which swamped the town. These
came in about an hour after the town had been shattered by the motion
of the ground.
The first motion in the waters was their withdrawal, which was
sufficient to completely uncover the bar at the mouth of the Tagus.
At Cadiz, the first wave, which was the greatest, is said to have been
sixty feet in height. Fortunately the devastating effect which this
would have produced was partially warded off by cliffs.
At the time of the Jamaica earthquake (1692) the sea drew back for a
distance of a mile.
In South America sea waves are common accompaniments of large
earthquakes, and they are regarded with more fear than the actual
earthquakes.
On October 28, 1724, Lima was destroyed, and on the evening of that day
the sea rose in a wave eighty feet over Callao. Out of twenty-three
ships in the harbour, nineteen were sunk, and four others were carried
far inland. The first movement which is usually observed is a drawing
back of the waters, and this is so well known to precede the inrush of
large waves, that many of the inhabitants in South America have used it
as a timely warning to escape towards the hills, and save themselves
from the terrible reaction which, on more than one occasion, has so
quickly followed.
At Caldera, near to Copiapo, on May 9, 1877, which was the time when
Iquique was devastated, the first motion which was observed in the sea
was that it silently drew back for over 200 feet, after which it rose
as a wave over five feet high. At some places the water came in as
waves from twenty to eighty feet in height.
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