There was talk of Earthquakes.
"Reminiscences of a South African Pioneer"
W. C. Scully
Opening this "almost" at random I read-"Earthquakes alone are sufficient to destroy the prosperity of any country.
"Luck or Cunning?"
Samuel Butler
She found herself, even at this early hour of the day, tired with the strain of a misgiving that an earthquake was approaching; and as those who have lived through Earthquakes become unstrung at every slightest tremor of the earth's crust beneath them, so she felt that the tension begun with that recurrence of two days ago had grown and grown, and threatened to dominate her mind, to the exclusion of all else.
"Somehow Good"
William de Morgan