CANTERBURY EARTHQUAKE.

Taranaki Daily News, 30 December 1922, Page 2

CANTERBURY EARTHQUAKE.

ALARMING EXPERIENCES. GEYSERS SPOUT THROUGH .SAND. THE ’QUAKE AT SEA. Christchurch, Dec. 26. Parties of campers at Waikuku beach had alarming experiences. Immediately after the earthquake ceasedj cold water geysers commenced to spout from the sand in various places, fissures having evidently been made in the ground down to the artesian water strata. Tlje water commenced to gush out in heavy streams, and fearing that there was worse to follow, possibly a tidal wave, those with mo-tor-cars made off as speedily as possible. In one case a geyser started below a car, causing themachine to sink in the sand to a considerable depth. Only the strenuous efforts of a crowd of people on a tow rope saved it from being deeply engulfed. One picnic party had .a unique experience, and one so alarming that it caused a lady member to faint. A cloth had been laid on the santf. -for afternoon tea when the earthquake occurred. Suddenly the tablecloth commenced to rise, a geyser having burst through in the centre *of "it. There was a hurried rescue of' the comestibles and a rapid stampede. Taranaki Creek, in the vicinity, which before the earthquake was a clear stream, afterwards became flooded with muddy’ water, caused no doubt by the quake opening fissures and. letting up the water from below. “EARTHQUAKE AT SEA.” Captain J. Vellenoweth, of the Union Steam Ship Company’s steamer Kaitangata, underwent a strange experience. When the. steamer was six miles off Lyttelton Head? a sensation was felt similar to that of the vessel being changed from full-speed ahead to full speed astern. There was a bumping as though the stery had grazed a sandbank, the whole ship being shaken and the masts quivering. It was at first thought that a serious mishap had occurred in the engine-room, but it soon became apparent that all the ship was experiencing was a strange, phenomenon of an earthqake at sea f ... AN HARMONIC SERIES. “It is interesting to note,” statedMr. H. F. Skey, director of the Christ-'/ church magnetic observatory, “that the earthquake is evidently of an harmonic series. In the Christchurch -re-, cords of the earthquake in North Canterbury in November, 1921, thW : - is distinctly evident. In that series there were two pairs of consecutive shocks, separated by intervals of almost exactly 53J minutes, and the whole series was evidently compounded of sub-har-monics of periods of 13 seconds, 17 seconds, and probably 21 seconds, coupled with the harmonics of the day. It may not be generally known that only just recently Professor 'fnrner, secretary of the Seismological Committee of the British Association, announced that in the world records of earthquakes for the past four years which had been discussed by him it appeared that a very definite 21minute period existed. He had stated that there could be no possible doubt that our earth is in a state of continuous vibration, probably of the nature of a pulsation, which could be maintained by variations of tidal forces acting on the solid earth.” “The 21-minute period,” stated Mr. Skey, “is very approximately the observed time in which an earthquake wave can traverse one diameter of the earth. I consider that further shocks are extremely probable, but the time of their taking place is as y<?t indeterminably. It will be remembered that such slioOks were observed after the great ’quake of November, 1901.” THE 1901 SHAKE.

It was on the morning of Saturday, November 16, 1901, that the last big earthquake was felt in Canterbury. On that occasion the shock was of such severity that the Cathedral spire was thrown put of alignment, and it was thought for some time afterwards that the spire, would have to be removed and rebuilt. Widespread damage was done in the city owing to tanks overflowing and crockery and plaster falling. The heaviest damage occurred at Cheviot, where the township was practically devastated. The tremors continuefl intermittently for several days, until not a chimney or window was left intact. The people were thrown into a state of panic and many residents who were rendered homeless had to be given temporary shelter in Christchurch. The earthquake which resulted in the total destruction of the upper portion of the Cathedral spire occurred on Saturday, September 1, 1888. This was the most severe within the memory of Canterbury pilgrims, but although the damage extended as far as Hanmer the loss of property was not nearly so severe as that which occcurred at Cheviot thirteen years later.