Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Fig. 2.1. “Earthquake House,” Comrie, 1874: “the first ever purpose-built seismic
observatory” (http://www.panoramio.com/photo/40904671). It fell out of use
between approximately 1900 and 1988, when it was restored and furnished
with an up-to-date seismograph. today, it's a tourist draw.
of what appears to have been the first purpose-built seismic observatory,
completed in Comrie in 1874 (figure 2.1). Yet the expected earthquakes
never came. In 1882, the local amateur historian Samuel Carment con-
cluded that Comrie's earthquakes had been consigned to history: “they are
now grown rather stiff in their joints by reason of age, and can only sit in
their subterranean caverns and grin at the passers-by, and bite their long
nails in impotent rage.”
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Aside from light shakings in 1894, 1895, and
1898, Comrie kept its peace.
30
Meanwhile, the seismic threat began to an-
nounce itself closer to the heart of the British Empire.
“British Earthquakes”
Comrie's quick shot to fame as an “earthquake center” was a function in
part of the exotic quality of earthquakes in the British Isles. where tremors
were so rare, even weak ones drew numerous and elaborate reports. one
witness even erected a stone monument to mark an 1840 earthquake, of
