John J. Lake

“ The land-breeze often failed, and the sea-breeze blew all night, whereas the land-breeze should blow all night and the sea-breeze all day. There was an earthquake on September 8, 1692, in Europe, but I have not yet been able to find out the locality.
Space will not admit of more than noticing some special phenomena of the Sicilian earthquakes, 1693. On the 10th of January the castle of Augusta was blown up by the lightning firing the powder-magazine. At Minco, on the 11th, the shock was attended by "a mighty storm of lightning, thunder, and hail, that lasted six hours." ”

“ The hypothesis that they are caused by steam or the explosion of confined gases has scarcely a better foundation. These agents might produce vertical motion and subterranean noises, but it is difficult to conceive how they could bring about circular motion at the surface; and it is quite impossible that the explosion of gases or the escape of steam could, immediately preceding a shock, attract the clouds floating in the atmosphere, so that they should remain fixed over particular spots. ”

“ It has been observed that clouds have become fixed or suspended over particular spots affected, or about to be affected, by earthquake, as in London, in 1749, in Calabria, in 1783; and it is more than probable that the fog that enveloped Euphemia, in Sicily, in 1638, Millitello in 1693, and other places when they were destroyed, arose from the operation of one cause.
5. Explosions of great violence frequently attend these convulsions, often with disastrous results. When Millitello was destroyed, there was a great explosion heard in the fog that enveloped it ”

“ But by far the most prominent agent seems to be electricity, and the Italians, who suffer so much from these calamities, consider it to be the only cause. The evidences of the activity of the electric fluid in this respect are so palpable that they cannot be controverted. ”

“ Other characteristics also cannot' be explained on this theory, as the lightning and disturbance of the compass.
The volcanic and igneous theory is not so easily to be disposed of; for it appears very clear that volcanic eruptions do produce earthquake. A remarkable instance is that of Santorini in 1650. Earthquake is also very common where volcanic action is extensively developed, as in South America and the neighborhood of Etna and Vesuvius. ”

“ Volcanoes produce these disturbances in two ways: 1. By their own direct motion; 2. By disturbing the electric equilibrium in their neighborhood. This electric disturbance was noticed by Pliny, who records that an officer, one of the Decuriones Municipales of Pompeii, was struck by lightning in 79, although the sky was perfectly unclouded ”

“ At Blockley the shocks were experienced strongly at the church, but very slightly at the chapel about 300 yards distant, and the latter was constructed without water-pipes.
7. Earthquakes are very frequently attended by thunder and lightning. At Munster, in 1612, thunder and lightning were heavy during an earthquake; and in Sicily, in 1693, it caused very great mischief. This conjunction of lightning with earthquake was noticed by Luke Howard, and constitutes what he designates "spurious earthquake." ”