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Show THE ancients had theories to account for earthquakes and very curious they become in the light of modern investigation. Anaxagoras, the Rhodian, saw in them a sort of cosmic flatulence- winds which had strayed into caverns having no outlets. Aristotle believed them to be due to the infiltration of water through a rocky sea bottom, producing vapors, Pliny ascribed them to the pressure of air confined in deep caves, reacting against the collapse of overlying rock strata, while St. Thomas, of Aquinas, most ingeniously explained that earthquakes may arise from the struggles of defunct misbelievers trying to escape from a pit of torment. |