THE ATMOSPHERE AND EARTH QUAKES.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2821, 10 April 1882, Page 3

THE ATMOSPHERE AND EARTH QUAKES.

The terrible colliery accident near Wigan, just before Christmas, says the editor of “ Science and Gossip,” has again brought forward the long-observed fact that these accidents are usually most abundant in November and December ; or, in other words, as now recognised, when the barometer is low or liable to sudden drops. The connection between a decreased pressure of the atmosphere, as thus indicated, and colliery accidents has caused a series of warnings to be issued to colliery managers, similar to those which haw been published as “storm warning ’• in the interests of sailors and fishermen. Still more recently there has been worked out a relationship between the more frequent occurrence of earthquake and volcanic action and the low state of atmospheric pressure. Further, Mr Baldwin Latham, the well-known ■ has abundantly proved that ■ield more water when the barometer is low than when it is high. Taking all these relationships together, we ’.ave now little doubt that sudden and violent atmospheric changes must

possess more important effects than have hitherto been imagined. During the fearful storm, in England, of the 14th of October last the barometer suddenly fell one inch. This is equivalent to tho removal of an atmospheric pressure on every acre of ground of nearly 1400 tons ! It is evident that such a sudden uplifting of the safety valve must allow the steair to escape. In other words, these are the opportunities for energies pent up by atmospheric pressure td seek escape, whether they be dangerous gases in coal mines, volcanic or terrestrial energies deeper down beneath us, or the water which, as rain has percolated through porous rocks to its present more or less atmospherically pent-up reservoirs.