RECORDED AT KELBURN

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 83, 5 October 1931, Page 8

RECORDED AT KELBURN

At 6.45 a.m. yesterday the seismographs at the Dominion Observatory were disturbed by a distant earthquake of considerable intensity. At 10.25 a.m.' the oscillations of the instruments had practically ceased, but another shake set them in motion again, and it was not until' 2.30 p.m. that the recording instruments came to rest. The disturbance was first estimated to be about 4000 miles from Wellington, in the East Indies, but'a radio message received later fronv the_ Apia Observatory enabled the locality of the centre of the shake to be estimated much more closely. The Apia Observatory placed the centre at 1600 miles from there, and it was calculated to be 1940 miles from Wellington. An epicentre obtained from the given data was estimated to be somewhere in the Solomon Islands. Despite the apparent severity of the shake, it is by no means certain that extensive damage was caused. The centre may have been under the sea, and in any event, it is more than probable that it was in a sparsely-populated area. Further, the buildings in the vicinity are of a much more flexible type than,is common in European districts, and ■ are consequently able to withstand much more severe shakes. Frequently when damage is caused by earthquakes in such areas, it is some time before news of the occurrence reaches the rest of the world owing to lack of regular communication* between the different districts and with the outside world.