WEAK EARTH CRUST.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 12 June 1924, Page 12

WEAK EARTH CRUST.

WHERE EA RTHQUAKES EMANATE

I'liero are .several specially weak places m the crust of tire earth. Dr. \\ arren J). Smith, University of'Oregon professor, said recently in a discussion of earthquakes, states an Associated Press correspondent in the New. York Evening Post. “One of these,” he explained, “is the Straits of Messina, between Sipily and Italy, where in 1908 a very destructive earthquake took place. Another is the junc tion of the Pacific arc with the IndoMalayan arc. This is in the region of Java and the Philippines. Some exceedingly devastating earthquakes have taken place in those regions. Another place is the Chilean coast, and still another is along the San Andreas Rift in California.

“Perhaps the most unstable part of the earth’s crust to-day is in the northwest part of the Pacific, bordering; the great. Tuscarora Deep. A broad belt of folded rocks includes the entire archipelago of Japan, the Philippines, and New Guinea in the Western Pacific, and this belt runs right around the Pacific Ocean. This is the first major feature of the Pacifc. East of this region is the great trough known as the Tuseamra Deep. To the south of this, just oast of the Philippines, is a still greater deep, which is a continuation of the one east, of Japan. With a depth of slightly over six miles, this is the deepest place known in anv ocean. To the east of this trougli is a submerged mountain range, in fact several,, blit one in particular, which apparently is rising and some clity will iorni a new festoon of islands paralleling Japan and the Philippines. According to the latest invest Igations in the Pacific.. great. t!irusts due to accommodations m the enter shell of the- earth, are. taking plsre in the direction of the Asiatic continent.”