“ Earthquake Year.”

Hokitika Guardian, 10 February 1923, Page 4

“ Earthquake Year.”

sc: I ENT I ST'S PR F. DT ( TION. Tl„. A I)1jo Aloreux, director of Bourses Observalury. in nn article published in Paris at the end of November in resurd to the recent earthquakes predicts new upheavals for this year. One of the most seriously affected earthquake regions in the world, he says, is the lamoiis .Mediterranean depression which surrounds the globe at the point of separation between the ancient African and Eurasian continents on the one hand and North and !i American on the other. fl is now known, he says, that earthquakes are more or less continually occurring, the seismographs registering on an average .‘IO,OOO ol those movements of the earth every rear. The majority of the shocks occur durum- the colder season, and then more often in the night than during the day. and in the morning more frequently than in the evening. These facts have led tins well-known astronomer to conduct researches since If)()o ns to whether the sun has not an effective action in the internal economy of the globe, as it has on its atmosphere. 11 is conclusion is that atmospheric electricity serves as an intermediary between the sun and earthquakes, or rather—which comes to the same tiling—between solar phenomena and contractions of the terrestrial globe. Earthquakes are most numerous, lie asserts, in the periods of exceptional solar calm which recur cterv 1 1 years. Now the maximum of solar activity according to Abbe Moreux’s observations, was registered in 1917 ; therefore he predict' that it will he at its minimum in 192. T. which should therefore he marked by an increased number of earthquakes. The series, he insists, has already begun, and in a little while shocks mav he expected to be repot tcd from Japan, the West Indies, and perhaps Mexico and Turkestan. M hit the exception of the Provencal district, Eranee, he believes, may expect to escape. as it is normally largely free front phenomena of this kind.