EARTHQUAKES OF 1906.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 1987, 24 January 1907, Page 2

EARTHQUAKES OF 1906.

COAIPARED WITH PREVIOUS YEARS. The impression tjiat from the earthquake point of view'l9o6 was worse than 1905 is not borne out by Air G. Hogben, who is the earthquake expert for the North Island, and looks after the Milne seismograph which is located at his house in Tinakori road. As far as the number of earthquakes is concerned, he said to a Post reporter, 1906 was not an extraordinary year, but the point to bo borne in miml is that two of the bigger earthquakes (San Francisco and Santiago) were in the neighborhood of big cities, although the earthquakes themselves were not very big. It must, also be borne in mind that as tlie science of earthquakes grows, a knowledge of it spreads among the general junilic through newspapers and magazines, and more interest, is taken in the subject. As a matter of fact there were less considerable earthquakes in 1900 than in 1905 JO, as compared with 48—and in 1905 there were quakes much bigger than anything in 1906. For instance, there were two in Siberia, and the big one in India, lmt they did not occur near the big cities. And to go back a little way, none of them compared with the big one at, Guatemala in ■ 1902. which destroyed forty towns, and ill which about 3000 people perished.

The Charleston earthquake in August, 1886, was very much bigger than that at San Francisco, but tlie damage done, remarked Afr Hogben. was not, so great because they stopped the fires. Tile interesting feature about the Charleston earthquake was that it gave a stimulus to tlie building of steel frame buildings, which, even in their then incipient stages, stood tlie shocks remarkably well. Tlie fire ill Charleston was stopped in two ways. Due nfethod was. tlie utilisation of the fire-wells, which were still retained after the inauguration of the new water supply, and in the second place the new water mains were laid chiefly in permanent ground and only suffered a small amount of damage, which could soon lie repaired. Tlie consequence was that the firemen, sailors, and soldiers got the fires under ill less than three hours.

Turning again to the record for last year, Air Hogben remarked that f ile biggest earthquake was that ill Chili, following which came those at Formosa, Calabria (31st January), and San Francisco (17th April). None of those were of tlie most destructive order, and as a matter of fact the San Francisco quake ’was not as bad as that experienced in AVellington in 1904. The difference was that at San Francisco the centre was within about fifteen miles of the city, and at Wellington it was some 200 miles away. Other big earthquakes during the past year were at Palermo on tho 14th' September, and a series .of ouakes in tlie Indian Ocean, some 500 or 600 miles north-west of Perth (AY.A.), in August, October, and November,