In 1755, when Tauris was destroyed, boiling water issued from the cracks which were formed. Similar phenomena were witnessed at a place eight miles from La Banca in Mexico, in the year 1820. Part of this hot water was pure and part was muddy.
Sometimes the water which has been ejected has been so muddy that the mud has been collected to form small hills. This was the case at the time of the Riobamba earthquake. The mud in this case consisted partly of coal, fragments of augite, and shells of infusoria.
At the time of the Jamaica earthquake men who had fallen into crevices were in some cases thrown out again by issuing water.
Sometimes, as has already been mentioned, vapour, gases, and even flames issue from fissures. Vapour of sulphur appears to be exceedingly common. Kluge says that many fish were killed in consequence of the sulphurous vapours which rose in the sea near to the coast of New Zealand in 1855.
On December 14, 1797, an insupportable smell of sulphur was observed to have accompanied the earthquake which at that time shook Cumana, which was greatest when the disturbance was greatest.
Sulphurous fumes which were combustible were belched out of the earth at the time of the Jamaica earthquake in 1692. The smell which accompanied this was so powerful that it caused a general sickness which swept away about 3,000 persons.[44]
From the fissures formed at Concepcion in 1835, water, which was black and fœtid, issued.[45]
The earthquakes of New England in 1727 were accompanied by the formation of fissures, from which sand and water boiled out in sufficient quantity to form a quagmire. In some places ash and sulphur are said to have been ejected.
At one house the stink of sulphur accompanying the earthquake was so great that the family could not bear to remain in doors.[46]
Emanations of gas sometimes appear to have burst out from submarine sources.