ABSORPTION OF •ut: EARTH, is the sinking in of land, either in consequence of an opening of the earth or sonic subterraneous convulsions.
In the time of Pliny, the town Curites, and the moun taM Cybotus, on which it stood, were so completely absorbed, that scared} a trace of them was left behind. The city of Tantalus, in Magnesia, and the mountain Svpil us, suffered the same calamity from a sudden open ing of the earth. A similar fate befel the towns of and Gamalis, in Phoenicia ; and the huge pro montory of Phegium, in Ethiopia, disappeared after a violent earthquake. The lofty mountain Picts, in the Molucca Isles, v as instantaneously absorbed, in con sequence of an earthquake ; and an immense lake of water appeared on the pia( e which it occupied. See Plin. ihst. ;VW. tom. i.
A similar accident happened in China, in 1556, when a w hole province was swallowed up, along with its in habitants, and left in its place an extensive sheet of water. We are also tcid, that several mountains of the Andes ha•e disappeared from a similar cause.
In 1702- Borge, a seat in Norway, sunk into the grooved, and became a lake 100 fathoms deep ; and in Finland, in 1793, a piece of ground of 4000 square yards, sunk to the depth of 15 fathoms.
On the 23d of June, 1727, one of the Cevennes, a chain of mountains in the south of France, was under mined by absorption, and the whole mountain, with its huge basaltic columns, rolled, with a dreadful crash, into the valley below. An immense block of stone, 90 feet long and 26 in diante ter, sunk in a vertical position ; and so great was the shuck, that it was felt, and con sidered as an earthquake, at the distance of three miles. The village Pradines, which situated on the de clivity of the mountain, was overwhelmed by the tor rent of huge fragments of rocks ; but its inhabitants w ere fultunately celebrating midsummer eye, around a bonfire at some distance.
These instances of absorption, however are less in teresting than that dreadful calamity, which happened at Schweitz, a canton in Switzerland, on the 3d Sep tember, 1606, and which appears to have been owing to an absorption of the earth. Betw een the- lakes of
Zug and Lowertz, and the mountains of Rosenberg and Rossi, lay a delightful and luxuriant valley decorated with a number of beautiful villages. At five o'clock in the evening of the 3d September, the Spitzberg, or north-east projection of the mountain Rosenberg, pre cipitated itself into the valley, from the height of 2000 feet, and buried in its ruins the villages of Goldau, Busingen, and Rudder), with a part of Lowertz and Oberart. The torrent of earth and stones, which com posed the mountain, rushed like lava into the valley, and overwhelmed more than three square miles of the richest fields. A portion of this mass, mingled with the trees and cottages, which it had torn from their base, plunged into the lake of Lowertz, and filled up nearly a fifth part of its bed. The immense swell, which was thus occasioned, rolling in awful dignity along the lake, completely submerged two inhabited islands, and the whole village of Seven, which stood upon its northern extremity. In this dreadful accident, between t500 and 2000 of the unfortunate inhabitants were buried advt..
Buckminster, who has given a detailed account of this curious phenomenon, imagines, that the calca reous earth was loosened by moisture, at the place where the projecting mass was connected with the mountains ; while others are of opinion, that it was pushed From its base by the swelling of the fountains of Rosenberg. There is, however, no evidence in favour of any of these explanations, and it scents rather proba ble, that the equilibrium of the impending mass was destroyed by the absorption, or sinking in of the earth, by which its base was upheld. See the Phil. Mag. vol. xxvii. p. 209. For an account of similar phenomena, see Phil. Trans. 1713, vol. xxviii. p. 267. Id. 1716, vol. xxix. p. 469. Id. 1718, vol. xxx. p. 766, Id. 1728, vol. xxxv. p. 551. Id. 1739, vol. xli. p. 272. Id. 1745, vol. xliii. p. 52. Id. 1756, p. 547. Id. 1786, p. 220 ; and Zach. Eft/con. i. 545. Voyage clans les De part. Cantal. p. 24. Pinkerton's Geog. vol. i. p. 299. (so)