The Douglas independent. [volume] (Roseburg, Or.) 187?-1885, 1882-11-04
Earthquakes.

earthquakes udV6 D06u bu6 u0Sphlf u
science. We could recognize an earth
quake when it shook house about our
ears, or swallowed up city, but We
could not tell what caused the earth
quake. Jhis was q very humiliating
state of lhilgs, for it implied that Sci
ence, which, when it is spelled with a
capital S, is, according to Mr.. Bob
Ingersoll and his disciples, always in.
fallible, did not know anything, and
was, on the whole, not much better than
Revelation.
OF course, scientific persons invented
quantities of theories to account for
earthquakes. There was the theory that
tity of sea-water, leaking through tho
bottom of the ocean and striking the
melted rock with which the center of the
earth is filled, would be instantly con-
verted into steam, and this steam, pro-
vided it could not find vent through q
convenient volcano, would burst the
earth open and shake everything on its
surface in the neighborhood of the ex-
plosion This was the steam theory of
earthquakes, and it was not without its
merits Those who held it failed, how
ever, to explain how the bottom of the
ocean became leaky at one time and per-
fectly tight q day or two afterward; and
why the earth often failed to open dur
ing an earthquake to permit the escape
of steam.
Then there was the chemical theory of
earthquakes. It. was assumed that q
quantity of nitric acid, distilled in the
interior of the earth, would occasionally
fall on bale of cotton, and convert it
into gun cotton, which would explode
and produce fhe usual earthquake phe-
nomena; or that sulphur, saltpetre, and
charcoal would accidentally become
mixed In close proximity to the central
fires, and the resulting gunpowder
would take fire. This chemical theory
was beautiful one. but in order to be-
lieve it one had to possess an exception
ally lively imagination, and it therefore
had fewer partisans than had the steam
theory.
Then there was the electric theory. A
California scientific person asserted that
earthquakes were produced by electricity
and that they were becoming infrequent
in California because the rails of the Pa
cific railroad acted as conductors and
carried the superfuous California. cleo
tricity safely away. The fault of the
theory was that it did not explain any
thing. Electricity is the cat of the sci
entitic world. When no one can posi-
oily tell how any given phenomenon is
produced, scientific persons take refuge
in the assertion that il is caused by elec-
tricity; just IS the cook asserts that the
Hour-barrel, which is found to be sus-
piciously empty, has been emptied by
the cat. How electricity could cause an
earthquake no one has pretended to ex-
plain, and no one will ever make the ut
tempt.
In the place of theses unsatisfactory
theories we have at least plausible and
perfectly satisfactory one, devised by an
English scientific person. He in
forms us that the crust of the
earth is elastic, just in the same way
that hollow rubber ball is elastic. It
will yield to pressure in one place, and
will bulge out at another. The pressure
which produces earthquakes is ordinarily
supplied by the atmosphere or the tides.
Let us suppose, for example, that
there should be tomorrow heavy baro-
metic pressure over the continent of
Australia. This pressure would not be
felt by any Australian for the same
reason that he does not feel the ordinary
pressure of the atmosphere, but it would
nevertheless depress Australia to the ex.
tent of perhaps six inches. This de-
+ preston would SO squeeze the liquid
fires in the center of the earth that they
would press against the crust with such
force as to bend it outward whenever it
happened to be exceptionally weak. This
outward bending of the earth's crust
would be called ON earthquake. and it
would occasionally be accompanied by
cracks through which the cehtral fires
would escape. A similar effect is pro-
duced by the pressure of the tides. and
this fact explains the frequency with
which earthquakes occur in sea-coast
regions.
1t has often been noticed in California
that an earthquake is heralded by q
peculiar state of the atmosphere. When
the air is heavy and men feel sense of
oppression an earthquake is very apt to
follow This is what we might expect if
earthquakes are really produced by
atmospheric pressure. If the weight of
the. air is sufficient at times to depress
California to the extent of, say, foot,
the sudden removal of this pressure
would cause the crust of the earth to
spring back to its normal position, and
the disturbance would be recognized as
California earthquake.