EARTHQUAKE PREDICTION.

Hokitika Guardian, 24 June 1925, Page 3

EARTHQUAKE PREDICTION.

AL.Mt IST EXAC T ST I KXI.K. Specialists "ho keep their lingers ■ m the earth's pul-c say that earthquakes ran now lie predicted with more ;r less certainty (says Science Service), I lie forecasts are general in character. I’itc strength of a punk - and the previse time and place of its m rlirrelue .■annul lie determined with presentday knowledge. Rut, by studying the earih'-- changes and noting Hie facts about earl Uptakes ol the pa-t. Die ipiakes of the future are charted. Thus, it is sail. l to predict that there will be an earLhipiako tn C aiifurnia next week, because California has had a

recorded quake during eaeli week in past years, according to Major William Bowie, of tile U.S. (’oast. and Geodetic Survey. .Major Bowie akn finds that a heavy destructive eartiiqitnk'e is likely to occur along tin- Atlantic coast within the next century, because there was a heavy shock in New Fiiglaml in the earlv part ol the nineuent li century, and auotlier in Soulli Carolina in 1880. An earthquake of some sort: within the in-xt year can be predicted with reasonable certainty for the Atlantic coast because shocks incur every year in til is region, though most of them, are noticed only by the sensitive seismograph. A heavy quake for the Mississippi Valley is predicted by Major Bowie to take place, some time in the coining century. The valley had a seriously dost met i\e shock in 1811. The’ earth's crust. till miles t hick, is constantly .subjected to tremendous pressure, lie explains in a coinuiunieation to "Seieme”. Cru vital ion forces soil, rocks and water into new positions. Some portions of the crust are forced down into hotter regions while other l options are pushed lip into (-older regions, owing to changes in equilibrium due to the erosion ot the mountains and the deposition of the debris Oil the coast. The expansion and shrinking which result from changes in temperature cause chemical and physical changes. Sometimes the folding and yielding of tile rocks takes p!;u ■ suddenly, and there is an earthquake.

■‘'l'he earthquake is merely a symptom of something more fundamental taking place in tin* earths crust,’’ h* adds. “The earthquake is the efieet rat her than the cause, iiist as we may sav that for a human being the (hill is a symptom ot malaria rather than the disease itsell.